COSCO Pacific profit rises 10.7 percent

COSCO Pacific profit rises 10.7 percent Chinese terminal operator COSCO Pacific on Friday reported $398 million in profits before tax in 2006, a 10.7 percent over 2005.
   Throughput at COSCO terminals rose 25.7 percent to 32.8 million TEUs, while the company's container fleet capacity increased nearly 20 percent to 1.3 million TEUs.
   Much of COSCO's throughput growth came from its terminals in the Bohai Bay region, where throughput grew 43.4 percent at six terminals in China's northernmost hub of container ports. In the more well-known regions of the Yangtze and Pearl river deltas, throughput grew 13 percent, underpinning the terminal operators' overall growth.
   Throughput in China represents nearly 91 percent of all the company's TEU volume.
   Earnings were also helped by the COSCO's container leasing business and its 49 percent share of COSCO Logistics, whose 2006 profit rose 21.5 percent to $11.1 million.