OOCL reports higher Q4 volumes, revenues

However, the Hong Kong-based carrier’s year-over-year increase in fourth quarter revenues was not enough to stop a slide for the full year, with revenues falling 9.9 percent from 2015.    Hong Kong-based shipping company Orient Overseas Container Line (OOCL) said it had revenues of $1.3 billion for the fourth quarter of 2016, up 10.3 percent from the same 2015 period.
   The increase in fourth quarter revenues accompanied an even greater increase in volumes. OOCL moved 1.67 million TEUs in the fourth quarter of 2016, a year-over-year increase of 20.2 percent.
   OOCL’s parent company, Orient Overseas (International) Ltd., releases an unaudited operational update for the container line each quarter in advance of a full financial report, and it is often seen as a bellwether for the results that it and other container carriers will report.
   This year, it is likely to be even more scrutinized because of rumors that OOCL might be a takeover target. Last week, the company said it was “not aware of, nor is it involved in any bid relating to the company or OOCL.”
   The increase in fourth quarter revenues was not enough to stop a slide for the full year. For all of 2016, OOCL’s revenues totaled $4.7 billion, 9.9 percent less than in 2015. The company carried 6.08 million TEUs in 2016, 9.1 percent more than in 2015.
   OOCL reported that on the transpacific, liftings totaled 439,620 TEUs in the fourth quarter of 2016 and 1.5 million TEUs for the full year of 2016, year-over-year increases of 30.6 percent and 18.2 percent, respectively.