OOCL announced a profit attributable to equity holders of US$1.13 billion for the first six months of 2023, significantly lower compared to a profit of US$5.66 billion in the same period last year.
Additionally, the company’s revenue decreased to US$4.54 billion and earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) reached US$1.14 billion, both decreased from the corresponding figures in 2022 first half.
Furthermore, OOCL’s earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) fell to US$1.57 billion, while the operating cash flow reached US$548 million.
Moreover, the COSCO-owned container line moved relatively the same number of boxes in the first half of 2023, compared to the same period last year, reporting 3.6 million TEUs.
“Compared to the same period in 2022, OOCL’s total liner liftings for the first half of 2023 reduced by 1%, total revenue decreased by 60%, resulting in a 60% decrease in revenue per TEU,” pointed out OOCL in its first half results announcement.
OOCL commented, “The long, steady decline in freight rates, which began around the middle of last year, continued during the first half of 2023. The fall from the great heights of 2020-2022 has certainly been spectacular in terms of both absolute dollar value and in terms of percentage, but this is simply a reflection of just how high the freight market had risen. At the time of writing, freight rates are, broadly speaking, around, and in some cases above, the levels they were at pre-Covid, before global reactions to the pandemic created the exceptional container shipping market conditions of the past few years.”
In the first half of 2023, OOCL took delivery of the first two 24,188 TEU newbuilding container ships from Nantong COSCO KHI Ship Engineering Co. (NACKS) and Dalian COSCO KHI Ship Engineering Co. (DACKS). OOCL Spain is the first vessel delivered from NACKS and OOCL Piraeus was the first boxship delivered from DACKS.
