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Cosco keeps bleeding, H1 losses widen to $317m

Cosco keeps bleeding, H1 losses widen to $317m
Troubled Chinese line China Cosco continued to bleed, with first half losses widening to RMB2.28bn ($317.2m) from RMB990m previously even though it managed to raise revenue slightly to RMB32.49bn from RMB31.07bn previously.

Cosco blamed the continuing oversupply in shipping capacity and overall lower freight rates as well as losses incurred from the demolition of 31 vessels during the period for the poor performance.Cosco made progress in optimising its fleet with the demolition of aged vessels and the construction of new vessels but took a hit of RMB909.2m from the demolition of 31 vessels during the period.

Container shipping revenue rose 5.5% to RMB24.0bn while volume rose 9.2% to 4.5m teu, however average revenue per container fell 2.5% to RMB4,412 per teu.

On the dry bulk side, Cosco seems to have made big gains, with revenue falling only slightly to RMB6.42bn despite cutting its tonnage by almost 14% over the previous corresponding period.

As a result, if the one-off costs of asset disposals and divestments is stripped out, at an operational level Cosco managed to trim losses significantly to RMB830.6m from RMB3.18bn in the previous corresponding period.