OOCL reports higher rates for third quarter

OOCL reports higher rates for third quarter    Hong Kong-based Orient Overseas (International) Ltd., parent company of Orient Overseas Container Line, said its average revenue per TEU increased 6 percent year-on-year in the third quarter to $1,142, with particularly large increases in the Asia/Europe trade.
   The third-quarter increases follow a 5-percent rise in average company-wide revenue per TEU in the second quarter to $1,063, when compared to the same quarter a year earlier.
   In the Asia/Europe trade, OOCL raised its average revenue per TEU 8 percent in the third quarter to $1,471 from $1,357 in the same quarter of 2003.
   In the transpacific, OOCL’s average revenue per TEU was up 3 percent to $1,664. The carrier’s transatlantic revenue per unit increased 4 percent to $1,333.
   The carrier did not give a breakdown of freight rates by direction.
   OOCL’s company-wide traffic soared 21 percent to about 848,000 TEUs, with revenues increasing 28 percent to $968.2 million.
   “The overall load factor in the third quarter was 5.6 percent better than the corresponding quarter of last year despite a 13.4 percent increase in loadable capacity during the quarter,” Orient Overseas (International) Ltd. said.
   For the first nine months of the year, traffic was up 23 percent to 1.9 million TEUs, and revenues 31 percent ahead of last year at $2.6 billion. Average revenue per TEU was up 6.5 percent in the first nine months.