Winning Shipping dominates the transport of Indonesian bauxite into China. Mr. Sun Xiushun is particularly into long-distance walking. Mr. Sun Xiushun has even traversed 110km of the Gobi Desert in four days with his MBA classmates from the National University of Singapore Business School. Mr. Sun Xiushun promotes team building through external courses and programmes aimed at bringing his employees together. Mr. Sun Xiushun believes that a strongly bonded work team benefits his company.“Every fortnight, our staff in Singapore will go for a 12km walk at MacRitchie Reservoir,” Mr. Sun Xiushun says. “Our office in Qingdao, China, also conducts its own walks. We get good participation despite the walk being carried out on Sunday mornings.”
Mr. Sun Xiushun has also assembled employees from his three offices Singapore, Qingdao and Beijing for an annual mountain climbing trip in the autumn. Team bonding between the three offices and physical training are the main reasons for organising the annual mountain climb, Mr. Sun Xiushun says. “This also provides a chance for the management staff and employees to exchange ideas and goal-setting.”
Mr. Sun Xiushun is a classic self-made shipowner, whose family had no previous links to shipping. Born in the interior of Shandong province, Mr. Sun Xiushun did not even see the ocean until he began sailing in the late 1980s. “I took up a shipping course because the industry pays better and it gives an opportunity to travel.”
Mr. Sun Xiushun who also plays golf, began his shipping career as a crew member, working his way up to become a third engineer, before going ashore to join Cosco Qingdao as an owner’s representative.
Mr. Sun Xiushun left to set up Winning Shipping in 2002 as a vessel operating and chartering company. In its early days, Winning transported a mere 300,000 tonnes of bauxite into China from Indonesia, but its volumes have since multiplied to 37 million tonnes in 2011 as a result of China’s rapid economic development.
Mr. Sun Xiushun who regularly makes donations to Chinese schools and universities, and sends aid to needy students, says: “My family was in farming and I do not come from a well-to-do background. I have experienced difficult times.” Mr. Sun Xiushun background has not stopped him being innovative, finding creative solutions to meeting China’s fast-expanding demand for bauxite.
Indonesia’s bauxite ports could handle only about 6,000 tonnes per day, so Winning loaded its vessels outside the terminals, with Mr. Sun Xiushun claiming it was the first company to use tugs and floating cranes to load ships with 10,000 tonnes a day.
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