Shanghai: Cosco Pacific Ltd., Asia's third- largest container-terminal operator, boosted first-half profit 11% as the result of China's surging exports of toys, furniture and clothes fueled sea-cargo traffic, reports Bloomberg. Net income climbed to $153.2m the company said in a Hong Kong stock exchange statement today while sales climbed 10% to $162.1m.
Cosco Pacific handled 23% more cargo-boxes in the period helped by China's rising trade and expansion in Egypt and Singapore. The Hong Kong-based company's container-leasing unit also boosted profit after expanding its fleet of owned and managed boxes.
The company's 20 global container-terminal ventures handled 22.1m boxes in the first half. Volume at the 17 Chinese ventures, including ones in Hong Kong, Shanghai and Dalian, rose 15% to 19.7m.
Overseas volume tripled to 2.4m boxes after the company bought a stake in a terminal on the Suez Canal and added a berth at its Singapore venture. Traffic at its Antwerp, Belgium venture jumped 57%. The overseas operations accounted for 11% of the company's total throughput compared with 4.3% a year earlier.
"The Asia-Europe market is still solid, even though the U.S. is slowing down,'' Deputy Managing Director Kelvin Wong told reporters in Hong Kong today. [26/08/08]
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