China-based container carrier Cosco still benefits from sky-high rates and has just presented its best first-quarter result to date.
Photo: PR / Cosco Shipping
Cosco continues to bring in massive profits from its container business. In Q1, the Chinese container carrier’s operating profit (EBIT) is expected to be USD 6.17bn, according to interim financial figures.
The earnings are 98 percent higher than in the first quarter of 2021, and the result is the best Q1 performance ever for the company. The Chinese shipping giant continues the trend from 2021, in which Cosco like so many of its competitors presented record profits.
Last year, the operating profit was at USD 19.8bn, and together with nine of the largest players on the container market, Cosco landed a combined profit of no less than USD 115bn. The numbers are collected by analyst firm Alphaliner and include 10 of the 11 leading box carriers – with the exception of the biggest one of them all, MSC, which does not present financial results.
The record earnings occurred on an extreme freight market, in which Cosco only handled around 2 percent more containers than the previous year but drew significantly from the sky-high freight rates.
In the quarterly report, Cosco writes that the company managed to deal with the effect from a number of factors, including ”the global pandemic, the shortage of shipping capacity and the sluggishness in the global supply chain.”
The Ukraine war is, however, not mentioned as a potential factor.
