COSCO Pacific 1st quarter profit falls 35%

COSCO Pacific 1st quarter profit falls 35%    Chinese terminal operator COSCO Pacific saw its first quarter profit drop 35 percent to $43.7 million while volume through its terminals dropped 8 percent to 9.6 million TEUs, the company said Wednesday.
   COSCO Pacific's revenue was unchanged, from $75.5 to $75.4 million, while operating profit fell 26.7 percent to $26.3 million.
   At individual ports managed by COSCO Pacific, its Hong Kong terminal saw a 27.4 percent decline to 298,000 TEUs, while every terminal in the Pearl and Yangtze river delta regions lost ground on the first quarter of 2008. Only the Ningbo terminal posted a gain, 40 percent to 245,000 TEUs.
   However, the company’s northern China terminals mostly saw modest gains, including one of its flagship terminals, in Qingdao, where first quarter throughput rose 2.5 percent to 2.2 million TEUs.
   Among its three overseas terminals, Singapore and Antwerp saw sizable losses in volume (51.6 percent and 45.6 percent respectively).