In the first half of 2024, the global container shipping market was intertwined with tight effective capacity supply, strong demand and constrained supply chains due to multiple factors, including the inventory replenishment by Europe and North America in advance, the growth of cargo volume in emerging markets and continuing Red Sea situation. Against this background, COSCO SHIPPING Holdings actively enhanced the stability and efficiency of traditional business, drove expansion and innovation through digital intelligence and green low-carbon development, and focused on coping with the uncertainties of external environment by stabilizing its own development. Its capability to serve customers and create value for shareholders was further enhanced.
· During the Reporting Period, the Company posted EBIT of RMB24.66 billion and realized a total profit of RMB23.06 billion. It realized a net profit of RMB19.26 billion; the net profit attributable to the shareholders of the Company was approximately RMB16.87 billion, representing an increase of RMB309 million year-on-year. Its operating results were better than expected.
· During the Reporting Period, the operating revenue of COSCO SHIPPING Holdings amounted to RMB101.20 billion, representing a 10.19% year-on-year growth. Of which, shipping volume was 12.46 million TEUs, representing a 9.34% year-on-year increase. The revenue from container shipping business was RMB97.48 billion, representing a 10.41% year-on-year increase. The total throughput was 69.86 million TEUs, representing an 8.19% year-on-year increase, with the revenue from container terminal business was RMB5.09 billion, representing a 4.95% year-on-year increase.
l Digital supply chain has become a new growth engine. During the Reporting Period, supply chain revenue other than ocean shipping amounted to RMB19.89 billion, representing a 17.28% year-on-year increase.
l During the Reporting Period, the Company’s net cash inflow from operating activities amounted to RMB22.64 billion, representing a 70.71% year-on-year increase, laying a solid foundation for the Company’s development of digital intelligence and green low-carbon transformation, thereby enhancing its core competitiveness.
· During the Reporting Period, the operating costs increased by 8.38% year-on-year. As at 30 June 2024, the Company’s gearing ratio further declined to 44.89%, representing a decrease of approximately 2.51 percentage points as compared with the end of previous year. The asset structure was continuously optimized.
· The Board of Directors approved the 2024 interim profit distribution plan: RMB 0.52 per share to all shareholders (tax inclusive). Based on the Company’s total share capital of 15,960,605,965 shares as at 30 June 2024, the total interim cash dividends for 2024 shall be approximately RMB 8.3 billion (tax inclusive), which is nearly half of the net profit attributable to shareholders of the Company in the first half of 2024.
Since 2024, COSCO SHIPPING Holdings has made further progress in its global network layout, full-chain development, the integration of digital technology and traditional business and green low-carbon transformation. The Company not only effectively mitigated the impact of cyclical fluctuations in the market, but also achieved remarkable results in its high-quality development.
The global layout enables speed up advanced mode. Since the beginning of 2024, five 24,188 TEU energy-saving vessels and three 14,100 TEU Latin American supramax vessels were deployed in the Asia-Europe services and the South America services in emerging markets respectively. As at 30 June, the capacity of the Company’s self-operated container fleet amounted to 3.24 million TEUs, representing an increase of 6.5% from the beginning of the Reporting Period. Its fleet capacity remained in the top-tier of the industry. On this basis, the company continued to develop a balanced global layout of shipping services. At the same time, the company successfully extended the cooperation period with OCEAN Alliance to 2032 and launched the new DAY8 services in March to further consolidate advantages in traditional market. Besides, the company successively launched the route between West Coast of America and West Coast of South America West and the direct route between Yangpu and Abu Dhabi, upgraded the routes from China to Vietnam and East Africa, and successfully rolled out the direct routes from Tianjin to East Coast of South America and from Dalian to Mexico, thus achieving several breakthroughs in the development of emerging markets and laying a solid foundation for more effective reduction of logistics costs for our global customers and the establishment of a safer, more stable and more efficient supply chain system.
The upgrading of full-chain services saw leapfrog development. COSCO SHIPPING Holdings continued to build a global digital supply chain service ecosystem integrating “container shipping + port + related logistics services”. As for resource capacity building, the company accelerated the establishment of investment and operation platforms in different areas such as North America, Europe, Southeast Asia, South America and Africa. The construction of U.S.-Mexico cross-border services, European railroad operation platforms, and supply chain resources in Central and Eastern Europe, South America and Southeast Asia was carried out one after another. At the same time, COSCO SHIPPING Holdings developed supporting resources of Piraeus Port, Abu Dhabi Port, TCT Terminal at Tianjin Port and other terminals to continuously improve the geographical coverage of regional services. As for the expansion of sea-rail intermodal transportation routes, in the first half of the year, the Company successfully launched the Lázaro Cárdenas-Mexico City chartered train transportation service, thus realizing the seamless connection between the Mexican rail freight route and global shipping routes. In addition, the Company opened the Wuhan-Xiamen-Europe sea-rail transportation channel, providing a new and convenient shipping route for the central region to connect with global trade. At present, the Company has launched more than 550 sea-rail intermodal transportation routes for domestic and foreign trade. Based on the above resource construction, COSCO SHIPPING Holdings has continued to enhance its product innovation capability across the entire chain. In the first half of the year, the Company iteratively launched a series of full-chain packaged products, including the dynamic packaged product “Customer-Defined Services”, the third-country series product “Global Talent Pegasus” and “Talent Thomas”. Up to now, a total of 30 packaged products have been launched, covering 90 countries and regions around the world, which effectively expanded both the variety and features of our global supply chain products.
The integration of digital technology and traditional business is leading the way for new quality development. The Group sped up the upgrading of “shipping services” to “digital supply chain products” through the in-depth integration of digitalization and modernization of industrial system. During the Reporting Period, more than 130,000 blockchain bills of lading were issued, which maintain a leading position among similar platforms. Cargo Release was adopted at more terminals. The blockchain-based certificate with core information for the transportation of dangerous goods was launched. All new building containers of the Dual-brands were equipped with IBOX devices. The application of MRO intelligent system saved 16.8% on repositioning costs compared to before the system was launched. The coverage of MY REEFER platform Smart PTI was extended to Australia and Southeast Asia. The intelligent management of full-chain resources such as shipping, terminals, trailers, warehouses and customs clearance and their visual management provided customers in lithium battery, photovoltaic and cross-border e-commerce with standardized to customized whole-process solutions. During the Reporting Period, the shipping volume of lithium battery, photovoltaic and cross-border e-commerce continued to grow at relatively brisk rates of 22.8%, 27.6% and 61.3% year-on-year respectively. In addition, While the global supply chain remained tight, the Company provided whole-process online services to customers, especially small and medium-sized ones, creating a stable, highly efficient and diversified protection matrix for supply chain service. In addition, facing the ongoing tension in the global supply chain, the Group provides whole-process online services for a wide range of customers, especially small and medium-sized enterprises, and has meticulously constructed a stable, efficient, and diversified supply chain service matrix.
Low-carbon transformation gained increasing momentum to drive green transition.
Riding on the new trend of green, low-carbon and intelligent shipping development, the Company continued to promote green and low-carbon transformation for its container fleet, ports and terminals. Since the beginning of 2024, the Company has paid close attention to the requirements of the IMO Convention and the new EU environmental protection regulations. Relentless efforts were made to ensure our compliance with relevant requirements and pursue energy saving and emission reduction of our container fleet. While steadily advancing the construction of twelve 24,000 TEU methanol dual-fuel powered vessels, the Company signed the contracts in the first half of 2024 for retrofitting 8 vessels with methanol dual-fuel powered equipment. In addition to proceeding with technical transformation of the fleet for compliance with relevant regulatory requirements, the Company actively promoted the use of biofuels and the construction of green fuel supply chain. As for port business, the applications of distributed solar energy, wind energy and green intelligent lighting were vigorously promoted. The Company also actively promotes the transformation and normal use of shore power. From January to June, the total usage of shore power generation increased by 170% year-on-year. Besides, in order to meet customers’ needs for climate-friendly transportation, the Company issued the first Hi-Eco green shipping certificate for the customer based on the GSBN blockchain platform, which set an industry example for green and low-carbon transformation.
Looking ahead to the second half of 2024, the Company is cautiously optimistic about the outlook for the container shipping industry amid muted global economic recovery. Various challenges lie ahead, including complex geopolitical situations, profound adjustments of the global economic and trade landscape, centralized delivery of newly constructed vessels and increasing costs arising from green low-carbon transformation to comply with regulatory requirements. On the other hand, opportunities arise from the gradual recovery in traditional markets such as Europe and North America, faster growth of trades in emerging markets, and steady increase in shipping demand along with enhanced collaboration in the industrial chain.
In this regard, COSCO SHIPPING Holdings will continue to adhere to its mission to “accelerate 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 a primary focus on container shipping”, actively promote innovations in the ecosystems for supply chain, intelligent interconnection and green low-carbon development. Robust efforts will be dedicated to advancing the creation of new development models and new growth momentum, and new quality productive forces will be leveraged to better enable high-quality development, thereby providing better quality services to customers, and creating greater value for shareholders.
source: COSCO SHIPPING Holdings Co., Ltd
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