YZJ Shipbuilding loses $3b in market value after shares sink for fourth straight day

Shares of mainboard-listed Yangzijiang Shipbuilding plunged for a fourth straight day as a US proposal to impose fees on Chinese-built vessels entering American ports continued to batter the stock.

- Timothy Goh

It closed down 9 per cent, or 24 cents, to $2.44 on Feb 27. The counter was the most actively traded by volume and value, with nearly 147 million shares changing hands.

The sell-off has wiped about $3 billion off the Chinese shipbuilder's market value, with its shares falling 24 per cent in four days.

Its Singapore-listed investment subsidiary — Yangzijiang Financial — also fell, dropping 2.6 per cent to 56.5 cents.

The sell-off comes after the US Trade Representative (USTR) on Feb 21 proposed a fee of up to US$1.5 million (S$2 million) on Chinese-built vessels entering US ports to counter what the US sees as China's growing dominance in the global shipbuilding, maritime and logistics sectors.