OOCL drives up box volumes, revenues in Q1

The Hong Kong-based ocean carrier’s container volumes increased 7 percent year-over-year, while revenues rose 6.4 percent from the corresponding 2016 period.    Hong Kong-based shipping company Orient Overseas Container Line (OOCL) experienced a 7 percent year-over-year increase in total volumes during the first quarter of 2017, with revenues rising 6.4 percent to $1.2 billion, according to parent company Orient Overseas (International) Ltd. (OOIL).
   Loadable capacity crawled up 0.9 percent year-over-year, with the overall load factor rising 5 percent.
   However, overall average revenue per TEU decreased 0.6 percent compared to the first quarter of 2016. 
   OOIL releases an unaudited operational update for the container line each quarter in advance of a full financial report, which details the progress of the four major trade lanes.
   Broken down by trade lane for Q1 2017, in comparison to Q1 2016, OOCL’s:
     • Transpacific volumes rose 20.1 percent to 393,469 TEUs, and revenues rose 10.8 percent to $443.7 million;
     • Asia-Europe volumes rose 17.6 percent to 251,289 TEUs, and revenues rose 28.9 percent to $227.3 million;
     • Transatlantic volumes rose 4 percent to 100,861 TEUs, and revenues fell 10.9 percent to $118.6 million;
     • And Intra-Asia/Australia volumes fell 1.6 percent to 724,398 TEUs, and revenues fell 2 percent to $395.7 million.