The company was incorporated in 2002 and listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in 2003 as a vehicle for the core business, assets and staff of the state-owned China National Foreign Trade Transportation (Group) Corporation. In 2009 the company was reorganised together with the China Changjiang National Shipping (Group) Corporation (CSC) to form Sinotrans&CSC Holdings[6]. A strategic merger of this new company together with China Merchants Group received approval from the State Council of the People's Republic of China in December 2015, and by April 2017 Sinotrans Limited (and its former subsidiary Sinotrans Shipping) had become direct subsidiaries of China Merchants Group.[7].