BEIJING (Reuters) – Shanghai Zhenhua Heavy Industries Ltd (ZPMC) said on Sunday its cranes faced cybersecurity threats after a U.S. Congressional committee questioned the Chinese state-owned company's development of cranes for the United States. He said that it should not be done.
The House Security Committee will scrutinize ZPMC's installation of equipment from Swiss engineering group ABB on offshore cranes destined for the United States, inviting ABB executives to a hearing in January to clarify its relationship with ZPMC, It said it raised “grave concerns”. .
“ZPMC takes U.S. concerns seriously, and these reports can easily mislead the public without sufficient fact-checking,” he said, referring to investigations by the Homeland Security Committee and the Strategic Competition Commission. “I am thinking about it,” he said in a written statement.
“The cranes provided by ZPMC do not pose a cybersecurity risk to any port,” the company said.
ABB announced that it sells its controls and electrical equipment to a number of crane manufacturers, including Chinese companies, which then sell the cranes directly to U.S. ports.
The world's largest economies, the United States and China, frequently accuse each other of cyberattacks and industrial espionage. The U.S. government announced earlier this year that it was disrupting Chinese cyber espionage efforts targeting U.S. infrastructure and investigating Chinese car imports due to national security risks. Previously, Chinese telecommunications companies were prohibited from entering the country.
ZPMC says the cranes it supplies are used in ports around the world, including in the United States, and comply with international standards and applicable laws and regulations.
ZPMC, listed on the Shanghai Stock Exchange, is one of the world's largest port machinery manufacturers with a fleet of more than 20 transport vessels, according to its website.
ABB derives 16% of its revenue from China, second only to the U.S. market at 24%.
(Reporting by Mei Mei Chu and Ella Cao; Editing by William Mallard)
