Korean shipbuilder invests in Philippine facility Hanjin Heavy Industries & Construction Co. engineers place one of the last pieces of a ship which can carry 8000 containers at a shipyard in Busan, South Korea. The enormous ship, which is bigger than the dock, was built by putting the blocks together underwater. In a recent report, Hanjin said it may spend as much as $1.65 billion to build the world’s fourth-largest shipyard in the Philippines, Philippine President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo announced. --Bloomberg

HONG KONG—Shares of China Cosco Holdings Co., Asia’s largest container line, as much as doubled on their Shanghai trading debut after the company’s 15.1 billion yuan ($1.98 billion) stock sale attracted record demand.

The shares rose as high as 17.15 yuan, a premium of about 63 percent to the Hong Kong-listed stock, and traded at 16.68 yuan at 10:57 a.m. The Tianjin-based company sold 1.78 billion A shares, or a 20-percent stake, at 8.48 yuan each to buy new ships and a stake in a logistics company.

The sale drew subscriptions for more than 100 times the stock on offer, as investors ignored concerns about a bubble triggered by an 85 percent surge in the benchmark CSI 300 Index this year. China’s rising sea-cargo traffic and investors’ preference for companies listed in Hong Kong stoked demand.

“China Cosco has a track record,’’ said Mona Chung, who helps manage more than $1.2 billion at Daiwa Asset Management Ltd. in Hong Kong. “That’s why investors are attracted to the shares.’’

Mainland-listed stocks trade at a premium to Hong Kong-listed shares, as government regulations prevent investors from buying stocks overseas. The CSI 300 Index trades at around 43 times earnings, compared with a ratio of about 17 for Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index.

China Cosco’s Hong Kong-listed shares plunged 5.4 percent to HK$10.78. The stock has more than doubled since June 2005, when the company raised HK$9.52 billion ($1.22 billion) in an initial share sale.

The CSI 300 Index declined 0.8 percent, set for its third- straight daily drop and its longest losing streak this year, on concerns about shares being overvalued.

Central bank Governor Zhou Xiaochuan said on June 23 there may not be “a clear bubble, but we worry.’’ He also didn’t rule out further rate increases if necessary.

Former Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan and Li Ka-shing, Asia’s richest man, have also said that Chinese stocks may be overvalued.

“The bubble is there, but I don’t see any reason for it to burst very soon,’’ said Francis Chu, a Hong Kong-based analyst at South China Securities Ltd.

The People’s Bank of China has raised interest rates twice this year and five times ordered commercial lenders to set aside more money as reserves to drain liquidity and cool the economy.

China Cosco’s Shanghai sale drew 1.63 trillion yuan of demand, exceeding the 1.46 trillion yuan offered for Bank of Communications Ltd.’s 25 billion yuan sale in May. Shares of the bank gained 71 percent on their first day of trading. --Bloomberg

COSTS of handling boxed cargo at the Port of Manila has been deemed the most competitive with its Southeast Asian peers, with the exception of Singapore and Malaysia, even though local fees are more expensive.

HONG KONG—Shares of China Cosco Holdings Co., Asia’s largest container line, as much as doubled on their Shanghai trading debut after the company’s 15.1 billion yuan ($1.98 billion) stock sale attracted record demand.