China’s COSCO Shipping has received approval from the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) to complete its planned HK$49bn ($6.3bn) acquisition of shipping company Orient Overseas International (OOIL).

The approval was granted after CFIUS reviewed the proposed acquisition, which will involve the transfer of the ownership of the Long Beach terminal in the US from Hong Kong-based OOIL to COSCO.

In a regulatory filing, COSCO said that the company and OOIL signed a national security agreement with the US Departments of Homeland Security and Justice to divest the Long Beach facility to a third party.

The sale agreement of the Long Beach facility has paved the way for COSCO to receive the latest approval, as CFIUS had notified that the parties involved in the deal have no unsolved issues related to the US national security.

“The transaction is set to make COSCO the world’s third-biggest container shipping line after AP Moller-Maersk and Mediterranean Shipping.”

China’s Anti-Monopoly Bureau approved the deal last month, enabling COSCO to meet all the preconditions set for planned transaction made last year.

The deal has already received approvals from European and US anti-monopoly regulators.

Following completion, the transaction is set to make COSCO the world’s third-biggest container shipping line after AP Moller-Maersk and Mediterranean Shipping.

COSCO’s existing vessel fleet will also increase to more than 400 ships and its total capacity will exceed 2.9 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs).