Hong Kong container ship owner Orient Overseas Container Line (OOCL) has revealed a 62.6% drop in second quarter revenue as the box blues continued.
The company is always the first to report quarterly figures, but does not give profit numbers until later.
Parent Hong Kong-listed Orient Overseas (International) Limited (OOIL), controlled by China’s Cosco group, said the line banked $1.98bn to 30 June, against $5.28bn a year ago, when markets were still at record highs.
Transpacific revenue plummeted 68.7% to $649,000.
Total liftings increased by 1.3% to 1.86m teu, and the loadable capacity increased by 8.7% year-on-year.
The biggest increase came in the Atlantic trades, which rose 14.4% to 128,448 teu.
But the overall load factor was 5.9% lower than the same period in 2022 as overall average revenue per teu plunged 63%.
For the first six months, revenue dropped 60.2% to $4.15bn.
This week, in response to the ongoing dip in rates and earnings, Danish giant AP Moller-Maersk announced “considerable” rate hikes on selected trade lanes, Clarksons Securities said.
These target the Far East to North Europe and North East Asia to Australia routes, and are scheduled to begin in August and persist until year-end.
The Far East to North Europe rate will rise to $1,900 per feu, from the current spot rate of around $1,200 per feu.
French rival CMA CGM promptly implemented comparable rate increases a day later.
“Although liners are intensifying their efforts to increase rates, the feasibility of achieving higher rates in a market characterised by weak demand and rapidly expanding supply remains uncertain,” the investment bank said.
