COSCO Shipping Flags First-Half Profit on Improving Market

The MV COSCO Development arrives in Charleston Harbor, Saturday, May 13, 2017. Photo: South Carolina Ports

SHANGHAI, July 6 (Reuters) – China’s COSCO Shipping Holdings expects to post a profit of around 1.85 billion yuan ($272 million) in the first half, helped by an improving shipping market.

The world’s fourth-largest container shipping line made the forecast in a stock market statement on Thursday. It recorded a loss of 7.2 billion yuan in the same period last year.

“Freight rates for container shipping operations have increased year-on-year, container volumes have grown 34.72 percent, and earnings have continued to grow from the base set in the fourth quarter of last year,” it said.

Several of the company’s peers have said in recent months that the global shipping industry is emerging from a prolonged slump. In May, French container shipping line CMA CGM posted its second straight quarterly profit.

COSCO Shipping has suspended trading in its shares since May 16, citing “material asset restructuring.”

($1 = 6.8018 Chinese yuan renminbi) (Reporting by Brenda Goh; Editing by Mark Potter)

(c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2017.

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