OOCL Revenue Drops 42.3 percent

OOCL’s third-quarter revenue fell 42.3 percent to $948.9 million as its container volume dropped by 16.7 percent from the same quarter last year, the Hong Kong-based carrier said Tuesday.

OOCL, the 13th-largest carrier by capacity, said its revenue for the first nine months was $2.77 billion, down 39 percent from the same period in 2008.

Average revenue per 20-foot container dropped 26.5 percent in the third quarter from the same period last year, the company said in an unaudited operational update.

OOCL's load factor fell 4.8 percent in the nine-month period despite an 11.5 percent decrease in loadable capacity.

For the first nine months of 2009 (ended Sept. 30), total volume decreased by 17.1 percent from the same period last year and total revenue dropped 39 percent.

Loadable capacity decreased by 7 percent and the overall load factor was 8.7 percent lower than the same period in 2008. Overall average revenue per TEU decreased by 26.5 percent compared to the same period last year.

In the third quarter, OOCL’s revenue from the trans-Pacific trade lane dropped by 45.4 percent on volume that declined by 17.6 percent.

Trans-Atlantic revenue fell 43.8 percent in the quarter on volume that fell 22.2 percent.

Asia-Europe revenue dropped 51.5 percent in the quarter as volume declined by 22.9 percent.

Revenue from the Intra-Asia and Australasia trades fell by 29.2 percent in the quarter as volume dropped 12.8 percent.

Contact Peter T. Leach at pleach@joc.com.