COSCO Pacific reports higher profit

Company says container throughput has risen at its terminals, but that container leasing is weak.    COSCO Pacific, which both operates container terminals and leases containers said it had a profit of $92.3 million in the third quarter of 2014, ending September 30, compared with $85.7 million in the same 2013 period.
   Revenue was $216 million in the third quarter of 2014, compared with $203 million in the same 2013 period.
   COSCO Pacific said that container throughput growth has been satisfactory in the first nine months of the year. In the third quarter, throughput at terminals where COSCO Pacific has an interest was 17.6 million TEUs, an 8.7-percent increase; for the first nine months of the year, throughput was 50.1 million TEUs, a 9.6-percent increase.
   Container leasing demand has not been strong this year, said COSCO Pacific, and leasing rates remained low in the third quarter. The company said the size of its container fleet on Sept. 30 was 1,919,313 TEUs, 2.1-percent larger than it was a year ago. It said the leasing rate was 95.7 percent in the third quarter.