Cosco Shipping container volumes soar 23% in Q3

Cosco said in a stock market release that this helped keep up the profit momentum in the first nine months of the year with a net profit of RMB2.74bn ($413.1m) from a net loss of RMB9.18bn previously.

Cosco even put out a positive profit alert with the announcement saying that "under the warming market environment of container shipping, it is expected that cumulative net profit from the beginning of the year to the end of the next reporting period will improve significantly when compared with the same period of last year"..

While the container shipping market recovered, the group also continued to improve its internal performance and managed to lift the average revenue per container and volume compared to the previous corresponding period and operating margin also improved significantly, Cosco said.

Intra-Asia trade was a standout winner, with volume rising 32% to 1.54m teu in the third quarter. Transpacific also saw a good 22% gain to 775,375 teu and domestic China trade saw a 28% rise to 1.72m teu.

Asia-Europe however saw a 6% drop in volume to 927,870 teu.

In terms of revenue, intra-Asia also saw the most gains, rising 49% to RMB4.52bn, while transpacific followed closely behind, with a 35% rise of a relatively high base to RMB6.05bn.

Overall revenue from all trades rose 35% to RMB20.85bn from RMB15.48bn in the previous corresponding quarter.

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