The bull run for ocean carriers appears unstoppable, with profitability in the first quarter of the year looking to be even better than expected, reports the Loadstar.
And notwithstanding continued disruptions in the supply chain, the traditional post-Chinese New Year slack season and sky-rocketing vessel operating costs, the liner industry looks set for another record profitable quarter.
Meanwhile, Japanese carrier ONE yesterday released its Q3 earnings for the period to 31 December and has upgraded its financial year profit forecast by $3.6bn.
Blank sailings caused by port congestion
ONE said at the end of October it expected its full-year earnings to come in at $11.8bn, but three months later it has been obliged to upgrade that to $15.4bn, on revised revenue of $29bn from $25.4bn previously.
It reported Q3 revenue of $8.3bn, up 122% on the same period of the year before, for a net profit of $4.9bn, which compares with $944m the year before and was despite an 8% decrease in its liftings to 2.94m teu. And the carrier’s average rate soared to $2,823 per teu, versus just $1,173 previously.
It said carryings had decreased “due to blank sailings caused by port congestion, despite strong cargo demand continuing”. Much of the volume loss occurred on the transpacific tradelane where ONE’s Asia-North America liftings slumped 23% on Q3 20, to 564,000 teu, due to the chronic port and landside congestion impacting US west coast ports.
ONE said its revenue had “significantly improved” and attributed that to increases in both short-term and long-term freight rates.
“The spot market further increased from Q2 and remained at a significantly higher level than expected,” said ONE.
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Source: The Loadstar
