COSCO reports 2013 profit after selling assets

   China Cosco Holdings Co. said last week that profit attributable to equity holders in 2013 was 235.5 million Chinese Yuan Renminbi ($37.9 million) compared to 9.6 billion RMB in 2012.
   Revenue was 66.1 billion RMB, 3 percent less than the prior year.
   The company and its subsidiaries are involved in a wide range of shipping businesses, including container shipping, dry bulk shipping, managing and operating container terminals, container leasing and logistics services all over the world.
   The company said that in 2013, “the international shipping market did not see substantial improvement of imbalance of supply and demand, with container and dry bulk shipping sectors remaining depressed.
   The company had revenue of 48.3 billion RMB from container shipping and related businesses, a slight decline of 0.6 percent from 2012.
   In 2013, container shipping volume amounted to 8,701,579 TEUs, representing an increase of 8.5 percent. Average container freight rate amounted to 4,481.86 RMB per TEU, representing a decrease of 10.42 percent as compared to last year. Average container freight rate in U.S. dollars amounted to $723 per TEU, representing a decrease of 8.8 percent.
   COSCO said that in 2013, the industry was troubled by a continued weak market demand, together with gradual delivery of large vessels.
   “Freight rates continued to be low while the shipping market remained harsh. In response to these difficulties, the Group adopted various measures to adjust its shipping capacity and actively explored business opportunities in emerging markets such as Southeast Asia, South America and Africa and domestic trade market of China to try to mitigate the risks associated with the fluctuation of traditional U.S. and European markets, and the changes of shipping routes and energy structure within these markets. Although the average container freight revenue for the year is lower, its influence on our overall operation is positive.”
   The company had 14 new container vessels delivered for operation with an aggregate capacity of 96,074 TEUs. At the end of the year, COSCO operated 173 container vessels with a total capacity of 786,252 TEUs.
   At the end of the year, the company had four ships representing a total of 53,400 TEUs still on order. No new vessel orders were placed in 2013.