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In early March, Hong Kong conglomerate CK Hutchison Holdings reached a deal with a BlackRock-led consortium to sell Hutchison Port Holdings, which operates 43 ports across 23 nations, including two of the Panama Canal’s four major ports.
China’s SAMR market watchdog launched a review of the sale last week, with the Foreign Ministry saying that the anti-trust probe was aimed at safeguarding market fairness and public interests.
Earlier, while discussing the deal, Beijing voiced its “firm opposition” to attempts to infringe on countries’ rights and interests through “economic coercion, hegemonism and bullying.”
SAMR’s intervention came just in time, with BlackRock expecting to finalize the deal as early as April 2.
Fink’s Crafty Game Plan
On March 5, US business media reported that BlackRock CEO Larry Fink had personally assured the White House that the Panama port facilities Trump has threatened to “reclaim” could be acquired without using force.
A source told Fortune at the time that the Hutchison deal “wouldn’t have come together without Trump’s support.”
Panama withdrew from China’s Belt and Road initiative in February, drawing fire from Beijing, which accused Washington of “using pressure and coercion to smear and undermine Belt and Road cooperation.”
Strategic Trade Artery
Accommodating 14,000+ ships per year, the Panama Canal is one of the world’s foremost strategic maritime arteries, accounting for 5% of global trade.
The US makes up about 70% of traffic, with the canal dramatically shortening shipping time and costs between the East and West coasts, and facilitating trade with the rest of the world, including US LNG and food exports to Asia.
For China, the canal is the gateway to Latin America – a source of food, raw materials and energy imports, and finished goods exports.
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