THE Lloyd’s List Podcast is in Shanghai this week where China’s vast Import Expo has inevitably focussed attention on trade policy and the stand-off with the US, but shipping finance has also been under the spotlight.

Xi Jingpin has been in town, along with President Emmanuel Macron of France, both making headline grabbing statements on trade that indirectly criticised the Trump administration’s confrontational approach to demanding trade policy changes from China.

Chinese shipping giant Cosco has been leading the maritime strand of conversations with chairman Xu Lirong echoing support for the multi-lateral approach and calling for collaboration amid challenging market conditions.

There has also been a lot of discussions around China’s increasingly dominant role in shipping finance with Chinese leasing companies rapidly filling the void left by European banks.

Having provided almost 20% of global shipping capital that figure accelerated to 30% in 2018 and it is widely expected to increase further this year.

Joining Lloyd’s List Editor Richard Meade to discuss all this and more in this week’s Podcast are Lloyd’s List’s China Editor Cichen Shen and a special guest —Bill Guo, executive director of the Chinese leasing giant ICBC. 

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