OOCL reports increase in volume, rates

Shareholders agree to COSCO acquisition of parent company.    Orient Overseas Container Lines handled 1,691,538 TEUs of containerized cargo in the second quarter, 4.6 percent more than in the same 2017 period.
   According to an operational update, OOCL’s total revenues increased by 4 percent over the second quarter of 2017 to about $1.46 billion.
   Because loadable capacity in the company’s fleet increased by 4.7 percent, the company said its overall load factor was at par with the same period in 2017, and overall average revenue per TEU decreased slightly by 0.6 percent compared to the second quarter of last year.
   In the second quarter, OOCL said its transpacific volumes were 7.2 percent higher and its revenues in the transpacific were 11.2 percent higher.
   Orient Overseas (International) Ltd. (OOIL), the parent company of OOCL, is being acquired by a group led by COSCO Shipping.
   On Friday, COSCO and Shanghai Port Group said their offer to acquire OOIL had been accepted by the holders of 616 million OOIL shares, representing approximately 98.43 percent of OOIL’s issued share capital.
   COSCO has said it plans to maintain OOCL as a separate brand. COSCO will own 75 percent of the company’s stock, Shanghai Port Group 9.9 percent and other companies, including a subsidiary of  the world’s-largest port operator, CK Hutchison, will acquire smaller stakes. COSCO also plans for OOIL to retain its listing on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.
    OOCL’s quarterly results were not as strong as those for the first six months. For the first six months of 2018 OOCL’s total volumes increased by 6 percent over the same period last year and total revenues recorded a 9.6 percent growth.
   Loadable capacity in the first half of this year was 9.9 percent higher than in the first half of 2017, and the overall load factor was 3.1 percent lower than the same period in 2017. Still, for the first half of 2018, overall average revenue per TEU increased by 3.5 percent when compared to the same period last year.