COSCO Shipping’s Profit Drops despite Increase in Volumes

Shanghai-listed COSCO Shipping Holdings saw its profit plunge by 33 percent in the first quarter ended March 31, 2018.

The company’s net profit dropped to CNY 180.8 million (USD 28.4 million) in the period, from CNY 270.1 million (USD 42.5 million) reported in the first quarter of 2017.

For the first quarter of 2018, the group realized an operating revenue of CNY 21.9 billion, representing an increase of 9 percent as compared to CNY 20.1 billion seen in the previous year.

Revenue from the container shipping business was up by 6.5 percent to CNY 20.6 billion, while revenue from the terminal sector jumped by 72.1 percent to CNY 1.5 billion.

Excluding the impact of the acquisitions of NOATUM Terminal and Zeebrugge Terminal, revenue from terminal and related business for the first quarter of 2018 increased by 19.8 percent.

During the first quarter, the group’s container shipping volume reached 5.2 million TEUs, representing an rise of 11.8 percent as compared to 4.6 million TEUs handled in the same period of last year.

COSCO Shipping Holdings’ total throughput in the container terminal business reached 27.2 million TEUs, surging by 37.7 percent from 19.7 million TEUs reported a year earlier.