Orient Overseas Container Line (OOCL) broke all records last year, posting its highest-ever revenue, liftings and profit figures for its core container shipping and logistics business, according to results just released.
The carrier’s profit from operations jumped to US$903.0 million, compared to US$195.2m in 2019.
The container transport and logistics business reported Ebit of US$1 005 million, representing an Ebit margin of approximately 12.3%, liner liftings grew to 7.5 million TEUs and the line ordered twelve 23 000-TEU new vessels for delivery in 2023 and 2024
“These results were achieved in an unprecedented and extremely complicated context,” said a spokesman. “We began 2020 with a relatively optimistic outlook, noting the first stage trade agreement between China and the United States, and the improving trend in the supply and demand balance in our sector. However, very soon the global consequences of the outbreak of Covid-19 began to be felt. Following the initial spread of the virus across the world, market and customer forecasts suggested massive reductions in demand. While demand certainly did fall, it did not fall as dramatically or for as long as had been anticipated.
“Since June, the situation for container shipping has been improving. Benefiting from effective epidemic prevention measures, China was among the first countries to re-activate production and reopen for business. In economies such as the United States and Europe, by a combination of measures, including the encouragement of working from home and governmental subsidies, consumer demand also began to improve. In turn, demand for space on our various trade lanes increased dramatically, with efforts being made to put more capacity into service as quickly as possible, in order to meet the surprising levels of demand.”
