OOCL grows volumes 3.6% in 2017

The growth in container transport volumes helped Orient Overseas Container Line increase its liner revenues 15.4 percent compared with the previous year, according to the Hong Kong-based ocean carrier’s most recent unaudited operational update.    Orient Overseas Container Line (OOCL) saw its container transport volumes tick up 3.6 percent to 6.3 million TEUs for the full year in 2017, according to the Hong Kong-based ocean carrier’s most recent unaudited operational update.
   Despite a 3.3 percent year-over-year volumes decline in the fourth quarter to 1.61 million TEUs, OOCL’s overall liner revenues jumped 6 percent for the quarter to $1.38 billion compared with the same 2016 period.
   The steady growth helped the company grow its full-year 2017 revenues 15.4 percent to $5.43 billion, according to its most recent unaudited financial statements.
   OOCL’s loadable vessel capacity, meanwhile, increased 1 percent year-over-year during the fourth quarter and 5.1 percent for the year, according to the update.
   The carrier saw the strongest volumes growth in the Asia-Europe trade lane, where loadings were up 11 percent for the quarter and 19.7 percent for the year, followed by the transpacific, up 7.5 percent and 16.3 percent, respectively, and the transatlantic, up 54 percent and 8.7 percent. Growth in these trades was offset by volumes declines in the carrier’s intra-Asia and Australasia business, which slipped 14.2 percent during the fourth quarter and 8.1 percent for the full year.
   OOCL is still operating as an independent, privately-owned company, but its parent, Orient Overseas International Ltd. (OOIL), last July entered into an agreement to be purchased by Chinese state-run conglomerate COSCO Shipping and Shanghai International Port Group (SIPG) for around $6.3 billion. COSCO Shipping Holdings Vice Chairman Huang Xiaowen said in September that he expects the acquisition to be completed by the end of 2017.
   OOIL’s stock price shot up 20 percent – from HK$60.00 (U.S. $7.67) to HK$72.00 – following the announcement of the deal, and has remained steady since then, closing at HK$73.95 on Friday.