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Profit surged to US$2.81 billion for the first half of 2021 compared to a $102.1 million profit last year
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Liner liftings grew to 3.9 million TEUs; revenue per TEU increased by 74%
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Group revenue is nearly $7 billion
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Healthy levels of demand seen, with global GDP forecasts remaining strong at 6.0% for 2021, and US GDP already back to above pandemic levels
Global containershipping liner Orient Overseas Container Line (OOCL) logged its best six-monthly result in its history with profit surging to US$2.81 billion for the first half of 2021 compared to a $102.1 million profit for the same period a year ago.
Orient Overseas (International) Limited (OOIL), OOCL’s parent company, reported a group revenue of $6.99 billion as against $3.43 billion in the first semester of last year.
EBIT went up to $2.87 billion from $160.95 million year-on-year while EBITDA jumped to $3.11 billion from $382.71 million.
OOCL’s total liner liftings for the first half of 2021 increased by 19% to 3.9 million TEUs from a year ago. Revenue per TEU increased by 74%.
OOIL in its interim report said that after the onset of the pandemic-related lockdowns, it saw signs of reopening and economic recovery starting from the middle of last year, led at first by China and other Asian economies. The uptrend has continued since, with demand in key importing economies being considerably stronger than forecast, especially on trans-Pacific routes.
However, OOIL also saw supply experience severe pressure as various operational challenges worldwide all combined to slow down the circulation of container boxes across the network, as well the progress of container ships travelling from port to port.
These issues included port congestion, bad weather delays, labor disputes, shortages of truckers, the Suez Canal incident, insufficient rail capacity, empty box shortages in key locations, quarantine/social distancing in terminals, depots, yards, and for vessel crew, and a range of other difficulties.
These market forces have put upward pressure on freight rates on most trade lanes, and have been the main driver of the strong profitability during the period, the company added.
In the first half of 2021, no newbuild container vessel was delivered, and no new order was placed by the group. The twelve 23,000-TEU container vessels ordered by the group in 2020 are expected to be delivered starting 2023, OOIL reported.
For the first half of 2021, OOCL Logistics revenue and contribution increased significantly as compared with the same period last year.
Looking forward, OOIL noted healthy levels of demand, with global GDP forecasts remaining strong at 6.0% for 2021, and US GDP already back to above pandemic levels. The network continues to see multiple operational disruptions, reducing the ability of containershipping companies to satisfy strong customer demand. Longer-term, supply side growth in terms of newbuildings is relatively low for the remainder of 2021 and in 2022.
“For the time being, it would appear that the outlook for the remainder of 2021 and the early part of 2022 seems promising,” it concluded.
Photo courtesy of OOCL
