Seatrade Maritime is part of the Informa Markets Division of Informa PLC

This site is operated by a business or businesses owned by Informa PLC and all copyright resides with them. Informa PLC's registered office is 5 Howick Place, London SW1P 1WG. Registered in England and Wales. Number 8860726.

Cosco Shipping Holdings profits from expanded container business

Cosco Shipping Holdings profits from expanded container business
Expanded Cosco Shipping Holdings remained in the black in 2018 with a RMB1.23bn ($183.4m) profit and both its container lines, Cosco Shipping Lines and Orient Overseas International Ltd (OOIL), were profitable and reported significant improvement.

In 2018, the container shipping business of the company handled a volume of 21.79m teu, representing a year-on-year increase of 29%; of which Cosco Shipping Lines handled 18.37m teu, representing a year-on-year increase of 8.7% and OOIL handled 3.4m teu from July to December.

Cosco Shipping Holdings acquired OOIL in July 2018 and further expanded its fleet and service capacity.

Read more: Cosco Shipping keeps commitment to OOIL listing, to divest 15% of shares

The company has continued to expand in the intermodal arena and in 2018, it opened several new self-operating China-European container liner trains in cooperation with China Railway Corporation. The company provided services in a total of 112 foreign trade rail lines departing from China and 152 domestic rail lines, covering 20,000 to-door-service points.

Last year, the China-European Sea-rail Express based in Piraeus Port in Greece recorded a freight volume of 50,000 teu, representing a year-on-year increase of 27%.

In terms of port operation business, a majority of terminals controlled and invested by the company’s port arm, Cosco Shipping Ports, are located along the Belt and Road with a total of 283 berths in operation, including 192 container berths with an annual handling capacity of 106m teu. The container terminals of Cosco Shipping Ports recorded a total throughput of 120m teu last year, representing a year-on-year increase of 21%.

Cosco Shipping Holding, the listed arm of China Cosco Shipping Group, is engaged in container shipping and terminal operations. As of the end of 2018, the company operated a fleet of 477 container vessels with total shipping capacity of 2.76m teu and had an orderbook with a capacity of nearly 180,000 teu.