The group said in a stock market announcement that through its efforts, total cargo throughput rose 13% to approximately 56m tonnes while tonne-miles rose 18% to 193bn.
The group also took timely measures to boost performance including tweaking charter types and ratio of pool to own operations, which helped ameliorate the impact of decreasing international oil shipment price.
For example, in the first half income from time charters accounted for just over a quarter of international oil shipment income and the ratio of time charters and pool operations of international fleets of small and medium size was over 45%, Cosco Shipping Energy said.
It also astutely shifted capacity to the domestic shipment sector where rates were better than in the international market which helped boost operating revenue of vessels.
The group also made use of its expertise to offer customised shipping services for both local and international oil majors. Despite all this, revenue from the international segment still fell 21% to RMB3.2bnin the first half.
In the domestic segment, the group's “big customer” strategy saw it using contracts of affreightment (COAs) for over 90% of business and gaining some new land refinery customers. It also made gains in the domestic products market, where income rose by a third.
Better vessel utilisation through its “fixed vessel fixed route” operating model, helped boost vessel turnover efficiency while better voyage management under its “port, vessel and cargo” model improved the efficiency of ports and vessels and shortened the waiting time of the vessels.
Domestic shipment revenue rose 13% to RMB1.4bn in the first half.
The group’s relatively stable LNG shipment operations meanwhile saw pre-tax gains rise 73% to RMB131m on fleet expansion.
As at end-June, the group and its joint ventures had a total of 21 LNG vessels under construction with capacity of 3.63m cu m, all of which will be delivered for operation by the end of 2020.
Looking ahead Cosco Shipping Energy sees a continued slump in rates in the international market as the tonnage supply overhang combines with the traditional third quarter slump.
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