Cosco Shipping Holdings has turned in strong first quarter results aided by a recovering international container shipping market with higher freight years especially on the transpacific and Asia-Europe routes.
The Shanghai- and Hong Kong-listed group recorded a net profit attributable to shareholders of the company of RMB687.36m (US$104m) in the first quarter, a stellar jump of 280 per cent from RMB180.87m in the same period of last year.
First quarter revenue came up to RMB35.1bn, an increase of 60 per cent from RMB21.92bn in the previous corresponding period. The revenue for the container shipping business alone reached RMB33.45bn, up 62.4 per cent year-on-year.
Cosco Shipping Holdings noted that between January to March this year, freight rates of transpacific and Asia-Europe routes were higher than the same period of last year. The average China Containerised Freight Index reached 852 points, representing a year-on-year increase of 4.5 per cent.