Cosco Shipping Holdings posted stronger results for the first quarter, riding on higher freight rates and acquisition of Orient Overseas (International) Ltd (OOIL).
Shanghai- and Hong Kong-listed Cosco Holdings' profit came in at CNY 687m versus CNY 181m a year earlier.
Revenue for the container shipping and terminal arm of state giant China Cosco Shipping gained 60% to CNY 35.1bn ($5.22bn).
Analysts said the results were strong mainly due to the purchase of OOIL last July.
They believe the deal, coupled with better capacity management and cost savings will boost results in the future.
“The freight rates of Transpacific and Asia-Europe routes were higher than the same period of last year,” the company said.
“[We] actively seized market opportunities, made efforts to improve the quality of development and maintained its growth momentum.”
The container shipping division's teu volume jumped 43% to 5.88 million teu, while revenue lept 62% to CNY 33.5bn.
“After the acquisition of OOIL, the company adopted dual-brand strategy and has gradually achieved synergies,” Cosco Holdings said.
“In addition, the company puts more efforts on the end-to-end product development, and continues to promote the construction of sea-rail intermodal network to further enhance the capacity of end-to-end logistics solution.”
Cosco Holdings has 478 boxships carrying 2.78 million teu, marking the world's third largest fleet capacity.
