CSSC (Hong Kong) Shipping has posted a healthy increase in interim results on the back of the strong bulker and improving tanker markets.
The Hong Kong-listed leasing arm of state-owned China State Shipbuilding Corp said net profit for the first half of the year was HKD 906m ($650m) up 36.9% year-on-year.
Revenue for the interim period was up 43.3% to HKD 1.5bn, the company said in a regulatory filing.
CSSC Shipping said the size of its fleet grew to 157 vessels as of 30 June 2022 of which the number of vessels in operation increased to 132 from 114 vessels a year earlier. It also has 25 vessels under construction.
During the first half of the year, CSSC Shipping said it increased its investments in the gas carrier as well as feeder container ship, car carriers and semi-submersible vessel segments.
The company ordered nine new vessels worth a total of $492m, while purchase options on 10 vessels were exercised in deals that raised a total of $140m.
In early August, CCSC Shipping’s joint venture liner company CA Shipping ordered up to eight 1,100-teu feeder container ships at China’s Huangpu Wenchong Shipbuilding.
The order included firm contracts for four ships worth $27.5m each, or a total of $110m, plus options for four more sister vessels.
This is the second newbuilding contract that CA Shipping — a joint venture with Asean Seas Line (ASL) — has placed since its inception in May 2022.
The first was for four 1,100-teu container ships ordered at a cost of $23m apiece at China’s Wuchang Shipbuilding.
Established in 2012 and listed in 2019, CSSC Shipping is the first shipyard-affiliated leasing company in Greater China and one of the world’s leading ship-leasing companies.
