China Shipping Container posts first quarterly result
CHINA Shipping Container Lines, China’s second largest container shipping line, said first-quarter net profit topped Yuan488m ($69.71m), based on Chinese accounting standards. There was no comparative figure for 2007 because this is the first time the company has reported a quarterly net profit figure. The only comparative figure from last year was interim net profit, which surged to Yuan1.16bn compared with Yuan81.2m in the same period in 2006. Revenue in the first quarter of 2007 climbed 23.9% to Yuan8.1bn. This followed a 31.9% rise in liftings to almost 1.66m teu. Again no comparative revenue and liftings figures were given for the first quarter of 2008. But the carrier did confirm that long-term borrowings increased by 33.4% in the first quarter compared with the end of last year. This was largely the result of $272m paid to South Korea’s Samsung Heavy Industries to cover a 20% payment for eight 13,300 teu containership newbuildings ordered last year. The carrier has received a two-year loan from Bank of Communications to help finance the newbuildings. CSCL said vessel deliveries will increase its total fleet capacity by 15% to 512,361 teu this year.