NEWS FLASH: OOCL’s revenues tumble 13.8% in Q3

The Hong Kong-based carrier transported 5.2 percent more containers in the third quarter of 2016 compared to a year earlier, but average revenue per TEU for the quarter fell 18.1 percent year-over-year.    Orient Overseas Container Lines (OOCL) is carrying more cargo, but for far less money.
   The parent company of the Hong Kong-based container carrier said its average revenue per TEU for the third quarter of 2016 declined 18.1 percent from the third quarter of 2015. For the first nine months of this year, average revenue per TEU tumbled 20.1 percent year-over-year.
   OOCL carried 1.5 million TEUs in the third quarter, 5.2 percent higher than the third quarter of 2015. However, revenues for the quarter declined 13.8 percent year-over-year to $1.1 billion.
   OOCL is typically one of the better performing carriers, and the quarterly figures released by OOCL’s parent, Orient Overseas (International) Ltd., are often a harbinger of what kind of a quarter other liner companies are likely to report. In this case, the news is not encouraging.
   By trade lane, OOCL is reporting the following results for the third quarter of 2016 compared with the same 2015 period:
     • Volumes on the transpacific trade rose 14 percent to 416,147 TEUs, while revenues fell 18.2 percent to $423.8 million;
     • Volumes on the Asia-Europe trade rose 7.2 percent to 238,844 TEUs, while revenues fell 7.7 percent to $194 million;
     • Volumes on the transatlantic trade rose 8 percent to 97,631 TEUs, while revenues fell 12.3 percent to $126.2 million,
     • And volumes on the intra-Asia/Australasia trade rose 0.2 percent to 770,303 TEUs, while revenues fell 12 percent to $404.9 million.
   The dismal results for the company came even though OOCL hardly increased its overall capacity when compared to the same period a year earlier and made better use of its space. Loadable capacity was up 0.2 percent, and the company actually had an overall load factor that was 3.6 percent higher than in the same 2015 period.