China Shipping expects 2008 profit halved

China Shipping expects 2008 profit halved China Shipping Container Line said it estimates it's net profit attributable to shareholders for 2008 will decrease more than 50 percent from 2007 when it had net profit of 3.32 billion Chinese Yuan Renminbi ($486 million).
   In an announcement to the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong, the Shanghai-based company, the world’s eighth-largest container carrier, said results were being influenced by the global financial crisis and the fact that additional global container shipping capacity exceeds growth in shipping volume.'
   It added “the imbalance between the deployment of shipping capacity and the demand for cargo volume has become more obvious. In 2008, the volume of container loaded cargoes exported from China decreased significantly, the traditional peak season for cargo volume did not appear and the loading rate of container vessels dropped sharply.
   “At the same time, the price of crude oil kept soaring in the first half of 2008, which caused the operation costs of liner shipping companies to be maintained at a high level, together with the failure to smoothly implement each of the plans to increase freight rate, resulted in a sharp reduction in operating profits.”
   According to the AXS Alphaliner list of the 100 largest container carriers, China Shipping operates a fleet of 142 vessels with aggregate capacity of 446,678 TEU.