HALF-YEAR OPERATING PROFIT SOARS AT OOCL

HALF-YEAR OPERATING PROFIT SOARS AT OOCL    Orient Overseas (International) Ltd., the parent company of Orient Overseas Container Line, reported an operating profit before financing of $55 million for the first half of the year, up by 96 percent when compared to the year-earlier $28-million operating gain.
   Profit after taxation was $23 million, compared to a net loss of $2 million in the first half of 1999. Pre-tax profit increased to $34 million, from $6 million.
   Revenue increased by 20 percent, to $1.16 billion.
   “The profit before taxation of $33.6 million represents an improvement in our performance of $27.9 million from the first half of 1999 and reflects a continuation of strong global trade conditions,” said C. C. Tung, chairman and chief executive officer of Orient Overseas (International) Ltd.
   The company said that the higher profits came from its core business of international containerized transportation. Profits were boosted by exports from Asia to the United States and Europe. Both of these routes showed “substantial improvements in revenues” and the transatlantic trade also saw a “substantial improvement” in revenue, highlighted by strong exports from Europe to North America, the company said.
   Increases in both freight rates and total liftings contributed to improved results in the transpacific, Asia-Europe, and North Atlantic trades. Average revenue per TEU increased in the first half of 2000 on all major trade routes except the Intra-Asia trades, where revenue per TEU was essentially flat.
   Return voyages from Europe and North America to Asia “continue to be weak, but marginally improved on last year,” the company said.
   Orient Overseas (International) Ltd., which returned to profitability in the second half of 1999, said that the current arrival of the peak season in its containerized transportation business and results from its
non-containerized activities “augur well for the remainder of the year.”
   OOCL is the third major carrier, after CP Ships and P&O Nedlloyd, to have reported much stronger financial results for the first half of the current year.