CHINA MERCHANTS REPORTS 20% RISE IN HALF-YEAR PROFIT

CHINA MERCHANTS REPORTS 20% RISE IN HALF-YEAR PROFIT    China Merchants Holdings (International) Co. Ltd., the Hong Kong port, container manufacturing, infrastructure and industrial company, reported a net profit attributable to shareholders of HK$512 million (US$67 million) for the six months of the year, up by 20 percent.
   The result compares with a net profit of HK$425 million in the same period last year.
   Group revenue for the latest six-month period was HK$741 million (US$96 million), down by 3 percent.
   Profit from operations rose by 17 percent, to HK$364 million (US$47 million), from HK$311 million. Profits from associated companies soared by 46 percent, to HK$280 million (US$36 million), partly reflecting China Merchants’ purchase of shares in several port-related businesses in mainland China and in Hong Kong.
   During the period from May last year to the first half of this year, the company acquired 32.5 percent of Shekou Container Terminals Ltd., 20 percent of Asia Airfreight Terminal Ltd., 20.8 percent of China Merchants Shekou Holdings Co., and 20 percent of Shenzhen Kaifeng Terminal Co. Ltd. through a joint venture company with Modern Terminal Ltd., the Hong Kong container terminal operator.
   China Merchants also owns 20.3 percent of Modern Terminals Ltd., which handled 1,413,000 TEUs in container throughput in the first six months of the year, an increase of 14 percent. The group’s port subsidiaries on the mainland reported booming container traffic levels. Shekou Container Terminals Ltd. handled 316,000 TEUs, up by 19 percent. Chiwan Port and Kaifeng Terminal moved 306,000 TEUs in aggregate, an increase of 48 percent.
   Asia Airfreight Terminal Ltd., the Hong Kong-based airfreight cargo terminal service subsidiary, handled 178,000 tonnes of cargoes in the first half, an increase of 13 percent over the corresponding period of last year.
   China Merchants predicted further growth in its port and port-related businesses for the second half of the year.
   “In anticipation of the PRC’s entry into the WTO in the second half of the year, a positive growth of the PRC economy and creation of good opportunities for the group’s operations would be brought about,” a spokesman for China Merchants said.