OOIL sees profits increase more than five-fold in 2014

Parent company of ocean carrier Orient Overseas Container Line benefited from increased volume and lower fuel costs.    Orient Overseas (International) Ltd., the parent company of Orient Overseas Container Line, had profits of $270.4 million in 2014, compared with $47.1 million in 2013.
   Revenues at the company rose from to $6.2 billion in 2013 to $6.5 billion in 2014, an increase of 3.5 percent.
   The chairman of OOIL, C C Tung, said in a statement, “Seaborne trade growth for the liner industry was better than expected during 2014. East West trades recorded healthy volume growth while the Intra-Asia trades posted positive but inconsistent growth. In aggregate terms, global demand grew 5.3 percent, an improvement from 4 percent in 2013. The industry as a whole performed better than that of 2013, though freight rate across trades were mixed.
    “The Asia-Europe trade saw better-than-expected performance, especially in the earlier part of the year, while those of the transpacific and intra-Asia trades were more muted,” added Tung. “While carriers faced multiple challenges including port congestion in Asia and Europe, increasing labor and logistics bottleneck in the U.S., and cascading effects in the transpacific and intra-Asia trades, the industry benefited from an overall trade volume growth and declining bunker prices during the year.”
   He said OOCL’s liftings increased 5.5 percent in 2014. “Compared to the previous year, OOCL average revenue per TEU fell 1.9 percent. Despite the increase in capacity and lifting, our operating costs continued to improve. A reduction in total bunker cost of 10 percent, attributable to both decrease in bunker price and consumption, was achieved,” said Tung.