COSCO SHIPPING Holdings’ 2024 First Three Quarters Results Show New Vitality

COSCO SHIPPING Holdings Co., Ltd. (“COSCO SHIPPING Holdings” or “the Company”, SSE: 601919; HKEx: 1919) announced the third quarter results for 2024 (the “Reporting Period”).
 
In the first three quarters of 2024, the volume of cargo in major markets grew moderately, the effective capacity of container market was insufficient due to the continued impact of the Red Sea situation, and the global supply chain was generally tense; in the third quarter of 2024, with the European and American trunk route markets entering the peak season, the Company’s container shipping business realized an increase in volume and price.

In the face of complex and volatile global economic and trade environment, COSCO SHIPPING Holdings actively promoted the development of full-chain services, digital intelligence and green development, accelerated the development of new quality productive forces with certainty for the sustainable development of their own to deal with external uncertainties, and created new growth drivers. The Company’s operating results demonstrated a new vitality.

· In the first three quarters, COSCO SHIPPING Holdings’ performance demonstrated the Company’s new achievements in high-quality development. The Company achieved operating revenue of RMB174.74 billion, representing an increase of 29.80% year-on-year. Its EBIT surged by 63.72% year-on-year to RMB54.41 billion; net profit climbed 66.69% year-on-year to RMB43.35 billion. Net profit attributable to the shareholders of the Company in the first three quaters amounted to RMB38.12 billion, representing an increase of 72.73% year-on-year; net profit attributable to the shareholders of the Company in the third quater amounted to RMB21.25 billion, representing an increase of 285.70% year-on-year. 

· COSCO SHIPPING Holdings achieved strong growth in the third quarter. Operating revenue amounted to RMB73.51 billion, representing an  increase of 72.00% year-on-year; EBIT amounted to RMB29.76 billion, representing an increase of 248.93% year-on-year; net profit amounted to RMB24.09 billion, representing an increase of 281.12% year-on-year; and net profit attributable to the shareholders of the Company amounted to RMB21.25 billion, representing an increase of 285.70% year-on-year.

· In the first three quarters, the major business of COSCO SHIPPING Holdings achieved substantial growth.The shipping volume for the period was 19.04 million TEUs, representing an increase of 9.07% year-on-year. The revenue from container shipping business was RMB168.84 billion, representing an increase of 30.57% year-on-year. The total throughput of the terminal business was 107.27 million TEUs, representing an increase of 7.08% year-on-year. The revenue from container terminal business was RMB7.94 billion, representing an increase of 6.49% year-on-year.

· Digital supply chain has evolved to be a new growth engine for the Company. During the Reporting Period, the supply chain revenue other than ocean shipping amounted to RMB30.71 billion, representing a 19.66% year-on-year increase.

· As of 30 September 2024, the Company’s gearing ratio further declined to 44.53%, representing a decrease of approximately 3 percentage points from the end of previous year. Its finacial structure was further optimized, thus effectively enhancing the Company’s financial resilience, and laying a solid foundation for it to cope with market volatility.

· In order to boost investors’ confidence and maintain the Company’s valuation, COSCO SHIPPING Holdings announced on October 20 the A-shares repurchase plan. The total amount of the shares repurchase plan is expected to reach RMB1-2 billion. Meanwhile, the H-shares repurchase plan will be implemented under the general mandate.

· COSCO SHIPPING Holdings has actively fulfilled its commitment to reward shareholders with dividends. As of October 25, COSCO SHIPPING Holdings has completed the interim cash dividend payouts for A-shares and H-shares, with the aggregate cash dividend payouts amounting to approximately RMB8.3 billion(tax include). It rewarded investors by distributing nearly half of the net profit attributable to the Company’s shareholders in the first half of 2024.
 
Since the beginning of 2024, COSCO SHIPPING Holdings has adhered to the position of creating a “global digital supply chain operation and investment platform with primary focus on container shipping”. It is committed to deepening the integration of different cutting-edge technologies such as artificial intelligence, blockchain, Internet of Things (IoT), and green and low-carbon technologies with its shipping business, thereby fostering the growth of new productive forces for shipping and logistics business, accelerating the transformation of its global supply chain towards digital intelligence, green and low-carbon devel, and promoting high-quality development.

Focusing on the development of full-chain and the provision of outstanding services with high interconnectivity. COSCO SHIPPING Holdings is committed to building a global digital supply chain service ecosystem integrating “container shipping + ports + related logistics” services. Up to now, it has completed the construction of 8 investment platforms and 9 operation platforms in North America, Europe, Southeast Asia, South America and Africa. The construction of key hub ports such as those in Piraeus, Abu Dhabi, Zeebrugge, Chancay in Peru and key trade corridors such as the China-Europe Land-Sea Express and the New Western Land-Sea Corridor progressed steadily. The benefits of a secure, stable, easily accessible, highly efficient, open, inclusive and mutually beneficial global supply chain system started to emerge. As of the end of the third quarter, COSCO SHIPPING Holdings operated 436 shipping routes with a capacitiy of 3.28 million TEUs and operates and manages 371 berths in 39 ports around the world, and operated 589 sea-rail domestic and foreign trade routes, provided trailer products covering 26 countries and regions, 161 units of usable warehousing resources, and customs clearance services covering China and 52 countries and regions, representing an increase of 6.5%, 188%, 54.8% and 380%, respectively from the beginning of this year. In September, COSCO SHIPPING Holdings became Midea Group’s H-share IPO shares with a cornerstone investment of RMB2 billion equivalent to Hongkong dollors, whereby further enhancing its capability of collaboration between upstream and downstream resources of the industry chain.

Focusing on digital intelligence transformation to create new quality productive forces for shipping business. COSCO SHIPPING Holdings actively promoted the integration of artificial intelligence, Internet of Things, blockchain, 5G and other emerging technologies, and accelerated the applications of scientific and technological achievements in daily operation. All of supply chain control towers, intelligent warehouses, intelligent trailers and intelligent customer services were put into use, and the promotion of various services such as cargo space management platform, freight rate management platform and instant cargo space booking were accelerated. The Company’s capability of customer demand forecasting and overall service capability were significantly enhanced. Meanwhile, leveraging leading digital intelligence technology and ever-improving full-chain service network, COSCO SHIPPING Holdings actively promoted strategic cooperation with leading players in emerging industries. The cargo volumes in relation to photovoltaics, lithium batteries, automobiles and cross-border e-commerce it handled increased by 31%, 20%, 17% and 60% year-on-year, respectively. The Company also participated in the operation of Global Shipping Business Network (GSBN) to help promote digital and paperless trade process, which covers various fields including global trade, shipping logistics and finance, payment and settlement. Up to now, it has issued an aggregate of more than 300,000 e-bills of lading. The time required for the release of cargo imports was thus shortened from 1~2 days to within 4 hours, offering the shipping industry with a consistent and highly efficient e-bills of lading solution.

Focusing on green development and driving sustainable development of shipping business. COSCO SHIPPING Holdings accelerated the green and low-carbon transformation and promoted sustainable development through green fleet and green port building. In terms of green fleet building, COSCO SHIPPING Holdings has ordered a number of methanol dual-fuel engines container vessels, including twelve the world’s largest 24,000 TEU vessels, four 16,000 TEU vessels and twelve 14,000 TEU vessels. Besides, it retrofitted four existing container vessels with methanol dual-fuel engines so as to meet the future requirements of the green shipping corridor from Shanghai to Los Angeles. Meanwhile, the Company provided green shipping services by refueling vessels with biofuels and launched Hi ECO, a traceable carbon emission reduction certification, to meet the needs of global customers for green and environmentally friendly transportation. In terms of green port building, the energy efficiency management platform was successfully launched at all of nine domestic terminals controlled by the Company, along with breakthroughs in biofuel bunkering from bonded storage and the successful grid connection of China’s largest port-based building-integrated distributed photovoltaic project at Guangzhou Nansha II Terminal. These achievements have set new benchmarks for the port industry. In the third quarter of this year, COSCO SHIPPING Holdings was honored with a number of ESG awards and remained a constituent stock of the Hang Seng Corporate Sustainability Index Series, showcasing that the Company’s sustainable growth has been widely recognized by the industry.
 
Looking ahead, there are various challenges lying ahead, including escalating geopolitical tensions, global supply chain restructuringand the tightening of environmental protection and emission reduction regulations. On the other hand, opportunities will emerge from the expected recovery of global commodity trade, moderate growth of demand in the consolidation market, and closer cooperation in the industrial chain etc.
 
Against this background, COSCO SHIPPING Holdings will adhere to its mission of “accelerating the development of the Company into a world-class shipping technology enterprise”, and stick to its positioning as a “global digital supply chain operation and investment platform with primary focus on container shipping”. It will emphasis on the construction of a modern shipping service system characterized by full-chain, digital intelligence and green features to provide customers with better services and create greater value for shareholders.

source: COSCO SHIPPING Holdings Co., Ltd.

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