Shanghai Zhenhua Heavy Industries (ZPMC) has refuted allegations of potential cybersecurity risks associated with its cranes.
This follows scrutiny by US congressional committees regarding the work of the Chinese state-owned company on cranes bound for the US.
ZPMC asserted that its cranes have been deployed and used in ports worldwide, including in ports across the US. The company emphasized that these cranes adhere to international standards and relevant laws and regulations, as reported by Reuters.
The House of Representatives security panels examined ZPMC’s installation of Swiss engineering group ABB’s equipment onto US-bound ship-to-shore cranes.
Reuters reported that ABB executives were summoned in January to public hearings by the House of Representatives to address concerns about their association with ZPMC.
ABB claimed that it had supplied its equipment to several crane manufacturers, including Chinese firms, who subsequently sold the cranes directly to ports in the US.
READ: New bill targets Chinese influence on US ports amid cyber threat reports
“ZPMC takes the US concerns seriously and believes that these reports can easily mislead the public without sufficient factual review,” the manufacturing company said in a filing addressing the concerns raised by the Homeland Security and Strategic Competition committees.
“The cranes provided by ZPMC do not pose a cybersecurity risk to any ports.”
According to Reuters, cyberattacks and industrial espionage are frequently used accusations between the US and China, two of the world’s biggest economies.
ZPMC, listed on the Shanghai Stock Exchange, owns a fleet of more than 20 transportation vessels making it among the world’s largest port machinery manufacturers. Meanwhile, ABB derives 16 per cent of its sales from China, second only to the US market at 24 per cent.
Just recently, the Biden Administration announced it would issue an Executive Order to improve port cybersecurity in the US.
