Volumes carried by Cosco-owned container line OOCL in the first quarter soared, compared with the same period last year, suggesting it made rapid market share gains in some key trades.
Globally, the Hong Kong-based carrier transported 1.96m teu in the first three months of the year, up 9.3% year on year, while total revenue increased 16.8%, to $2.3bn, and its average revenue per teu increased 6.9% compared with Q1 24.
However, there were considerable variances across the trades. Its transpacific services saw volumes grow 23.8% year on year, to reach 556,275 teu.
Although Container Trade Statistics only has available data for January and February this year, it recorded Far East-North America volumes growing 5.9% for the first two months, implying that OOCL won significant market share during the period.
In contrast, its carryings on the Asia-Europe trade declined 4.1%year on year, to 344,257 teu. However, Asia-Europe revenue grew 2.3%, to $505m, demonstrating that it managed to avoid the significant weakness in spot rates since the turn of the year.
Its intra-Asia/Australasia trade, which remains by far the most important to OOCL, grew 7.4% year on year, to 927,200 teu, and revenue was up 24%, to $743m.
Meanwhile, OOCL parent company Cosco this week reported its best quarterly results outside the pandemic.
Alphaliner today reported that the Cosco group – comprising the Cosco and OOCL shipping lines and Cosco’s port business – achieved a preliminary net profit of $1.8 bn in the first quarter, a year-on-year increase of 72%, “and the group’s third-highest result for a first quarter”.
“Cosco is the first major carrier to indicate a result for 2025, and shows financials remained very strong for the lines in the January-March period,” the analyst noted.
