Subscribe to RSS feedCosco set for 50% plunge
SUBSTANTIAL full-year losses are forecast for China Cosco’s container shipping business after it issued warning that interim profits would dive more than 50%.
Cosco issued a warning that profits would fall by over 50% for the first six months of 2009.
In the first half of 2008, the company reported a profit of Yuan15.1bn (US$2.2bn). The company attributed the setback to the impact of the global economic crisis on China’s imports and exports, which have had a serious effect on the country’s shipping industry. In the first quarter, Cosco recorded a 29.7% year-on-year fall in container shipping volumes to 994,498 teu.
That translated into Yuan 4.4bn in revenues, which represented a 55.6% decrease. Asia-Europe was the hardest hit the most among the trades. In the first quarter, Cosco’s container shipping volume plummeted 34% to 237,172 teu, compared with 322,465 teu in the same period last year, while transpacific was down by 31.8% to 220,003 teu.
China Everbright Research transportation analyst Rick Leung told Lloyd’s List that the performance of the two trades would remain sluggish in the second quarter.
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