COSCO SHIPPING Holdings Co., Ltd. (“COSCO SHIPPING Holdings” or “the Company”, SSE: 601919; HKEx: 1919) announced its 2024 Q1 results.
For the year to date, COSCO SHIPPING Holdings, actively grasping market opportunities, pushed for the development of new quality productive forces, accelerated the “digital intelligence” and “green low-carbon” transformation, and further advanced high-quality development. As a result, the Company kicked off the year with promising operating results.
· During the Reporting Period, the Company posted EBIT of RMB9.98 billion, total profit of RMB9.16 billion and net profit of RMB7.68 billion respectively. The net profit attributable to the shareholders of the Company was approximately RMB6.76 billion, surging by 277.6% sequentially on significant improvement in operating efficiency.
· During the Reporting Period, the Company achieved operating revenue of RMB48.27 billion, representing a positive growth year-on-year. Of which, revenue from container shipping business amounted to RMB46.53 billion, representing an increase of 1.82% year-on-year. Revenue from terminal business amounted to RMB2.38 billion, up 4.35% year-on-year.
· The Company’s shipping volume and terminal throughput achieved significant improvement. Among them, the shipping volume of the container shipping business amounted to 6,027,300 TEUs, a year-on-year improvement of 10.53%, while the total throughput of the terminal business amounted to 33,262,200 TEUs, an increase of 9.76% year-on-year.
· As the Company continued to develop the digital supply chain, supply chain revenue other than ocean shipping reached RMB7.43 billion, up approximately 3 percentage points year-on-year.
· During the Reporting Period, the Company retained a relatively sound position to withstand risks. Its net cash inflow from operating activities reached RMB8.87 billion, up 44.07% year-on-year, and the balance of cash and cash equivalents amounted to RMB173.05 billion.
· As of 31 March 2024, the Company’s liability-to-asset ratio further declined to 45.57%, representing a decrease of approximately 2 percentage points from the end of previous year. Its asset structure was continually optimized.
· Equity attributable to the equity holders of the Company amounted to RMB202.85 billion, representing an increase of 3.44% from the end of previous year. The shareholders’ interests were effectively safeguarded.
In 2024, COSCO SHIPPING Holdings made new progress in global expansion, supply chain development and digital intelligence and green low-carbon transformation, laying a stronger foundation for its high-quality development.
A show of strength evidenced by global development.In the first quarter of 2024, COSCO SHIPPING Holdings’ capacity steadily grew to approximately 3.1 million TEUs. The Ocean Alliance (the Company gets involved in its operation) not only announced the extension of operational cooperation for at least five additional years to 31 March 2032, but also released the new DAY8 product. Boasting a total of 355 vessels with capacity of 4.82 million TEUs, the alliance provided more than 480 direct port pairs, thereby further optimizing its service frequency. Meanwhile, COSCO SHIPPING Lines (Morocco) has officially commenced operation. With three 14,000 TEU Latin America’s extreme container vessels were deployed on the South American routes along with the launch and upgrading of the new routes from China to Southeast Asia, Southeast Asia to Australia, and the U.S. East to the U.S. West, the Company’s development in emerging markets, regional markets and third-country markets has been gathering momentum. At present, COSCO SHIPPING Holdings operates a total of 436 routes, calling at 611 ports in nearly 144 countries and regions around the world. The coverage of its routes significantly improved when compared with the end of last year.
Deepening the development of full-chain network. COSCO SHIPPING Holdings has successfully formed North American supply chain logistics division and the European supply chain company this year, and successfully launched the cross-border full-chain services across U.S.-Mexico-Canada, which cover a full range of services such as land-rail intermodal transportation, direct trucking, cross-border transshipment, customs clearance and warehousing. In addition, the Company has won a number of bids for European inland transportation projects. Its full-chain solution capability has been continuously improved. For resource capacity building, “Merit Your Trucking” products have been rolled out in 17 countries and regions, and the “Warehouse Distribution ” services have been introduced in 22 major countries and regions around the world to provide professional warehousing and value-added services for customers in the automotive, new energy, chemical, light industry and food industries. Meanwhile, the “Customs Clearance” service has been launched in 38 countries and regions around the world, thereby strengthening the Company’s capability to stabilize and expand the operation of its supply chain. By upgrading and revamping the westbound channel from Xinjiang to Italy with the Piraeus Port as a hub, COSCO SHIPPING Holdings provided customers with diversified transportation routes between Asia and Europe. Moreover, it opened a number of new sea-rail intermodal transportation routes along the Yangtze River and the Western Land-Sea New Trade Corridor, playing an active role in the development of the multi-dimensional transportation network in the central and western district of China.
Creating value through digital and intelligent transformation. With the support of digital intelligence technology, COSCO SHIPPING Holdings has further enhanced the operational efficiency of resources and stepped up efforts to drive product innovation. The launch of digital product bundles such as “For ForTune PERU”, “Talent Thames” (UK bound) and “Talent Pegasus+Indonesia” attracted wide attention. Besides, the Company’s e-commerce platform SynCon Hub launched the “customized products” channel to provide customers one-stop multi-flow full-chain services and let them obtain personalized services they need. In the first quarter, COSCO SHIPPING Holdings took advantage of the brand power of “Cherry Express” and leveraged the advanced Smart Reefer fleet, the one-stop smart refrigerated container platform My Reefer and the whole-process digital supply chain solutions to realize the shipping volume growth of Cherry Express amid market adversity. These efforts produced satisfactory results. In addition, the Company vigorously promoted the extraction of empty containers at terminals and the intelligentization of yard gates. It developed the container inspection APP on mobile equipment, which greatly improved the operating efficiency of yards. As for the port business, the Company continued to promote the applications of new technologies such as 5G, artificial intelligence and big data in various business processes such as the production and operation at ports, driving the innovation of business processes. It pushed for the digitalization for energy and environmental monitoring, shore power management, intelligent dispatch of fully electric tractors, and the upgrading of paperless solutions.
New developments in green and low-carbon transformation. Following the successful trial run of green biofuel-powered vessels and the introduction of first green biofuel Hi Eco, COSCO SHIPPING Holdings has recently moved further by utilizing GSBN blockchain technology to issue Hi Eco certificates. Each certificate provides customers with accurate information of the corresponding carbon reductions due to the use of biofuels, thus better meeting global customers’ needs for environmentally-friendly transportation. Meanwhile, the retrofit and construction of the Company’s methanol-powered dual-fuel vessels are progressing steadily, and the commencement of operation of the world’s first 700 TEU electric vessel attracts wide attention in the society. COSCO SHIPPING Holdings continued to deepen the green, low-carbon and sustainable development in the operation and management process. The customized system for recycling and treatment of container cleaning water was put into operation this year, providing customers with clean and safe containers in a more environmentally-friendly way. Besides, the Company promoted the incorporation of building-integrated photovoltaics into the warehouse development, hence enhancing the “green development” and its development quality.
Looking ahead to the second half of 2024, the global container market is characterized by both opportunities and challenges, including the unchanged overall positive trend of global trade, the expected gradual slowdown in inflation and the continued release of demand potential in emerging markets, as well as challenges such as geopolitical tensions, the growing urgency of green transformation and the concentration of new shipbuilding deliveries.
In the future, COSCO SHIPPING Holdings will adhere to its mission of “accelerating the development of the Company into a world-class shipping technology enterprise”, positioning itself as a “global digital supply chain operation and investment platform with a primary focus on container shipping”. It will actively promote the innovation of supply chain ecosystem, intelligent networking ecosystem and green low-carbon development ecosystem, thereby enabling it to effectively combat external challenges with all-round transformation, upgrading and high-quality development, to provide better services for customers and to create greater value for shareholders.
source:COSCO SHIPPING Holdings
