Peter T. Leach, Senior Editor | Mar 28, 2012 9:34AM EDT
Cosco Pacific on Tuesday reported a net profit of $388.8 million for 2011, an increase of 7.6 percent year over year.
The profit from continuing operations was lower than anticipated because of a slowdown in container volume in the second half.
The terminal-operating and container-leasing arm of the Cosco Group warned that volume is likely to grow at an even slower pace in 2012 as the European debt crisis continues to weigh on international trade.
The company’s revenue grew by 34.2 percent to $599.1 million, with that from the terminal business increasing by 65.3 percent and from container leasing by 10.2 percent.
The volume of containers handled by Cosco Pacific’s terminals grew by 15.1 percent year-over year to 50.7 million 20-foot equivalent units. The 23.9 percent growth at its overseas terminals outpaced the 13.9 percent growth at terminals in China.
The company said it expects its terminal business to grow at about 5.5 percent in line with the forecast by Drewry Shipping Consultants for global container volume growth.
Cosco Pacific said it has a “cautiously optimistic” outlook for the container leasing business, which it expects to grow in line with Clarksons’ estimate of a 7.7 percent growth in global container capacity. It said the “addition of new vessels and the replacement of old containers will generate considerable demand for new containers.”
Contact Peter T. Leach at pleach@joc.com. Follow him on Twitter @petertleach.
