Hutchison, Cosco Pacific, ICTSI see first half volumes rise

GLOBAL container terminal operators Hutchison Port Holdings (HPH), Cosco Pacific and Manila-based ICTSI have all experienced throughput gains in the first half on the back of strong world trade.

HPH says its terminals handled 35.3 million TEU in the first six months of 2010, 17 per cent higher than in the first half of last year.

Revenue grew 14 per cent to HK$17,697 million (US$2.28 billion), while operating profits (EBIT) reached HK$6,072 million, up 35 per cent compared to the same period last year.

"The improved profitability was mainly due to higher throughput, improved operational efficiency from cost saving initiatives implemented last year, and a one-time gain of HK$550 million as a result of marking an investment to market value," reports Alphaliner.

The company said the higher volumes came from its Chinese terminals, up 15 per cent; other Asian terminals increased 21 per cent while Europe terminals rose 16 per cent and those in the Americas were up 21 per cent. Operating profits in the Americas rose 59 per cent, leading the overall improvement in profits.

Cosco Pacific's 20 terminals in China, Belgium, Egypt, Greece and Singapore saw volumes grow by 19 per cent in the first half.

The report said the largest increases were recorded at its terminals in Ningbo, up 58 per cent; Nansha, up 56 per cent; and Singapore, up 52 per cent. Two terminals suffered falling volumes, namely Tianjin Five Continents, down four per cent, and Shanghai SPICT, down four per cent. Cosco Pacific's terminal at Piraeus in Greece, which started operations in October 2009 handled 376,700 TEU in the first half.

As for ICTSI, it posted a 26 per cent increase in volumes with its terminals handling a total of 2.01 million TEU in the first half.

ICTSI revenue rose 31 per cent during the reporting period to US$247 million. Operating profits were up 63 per cent to $86 million, while net profits soared 91 per cent to $42 million.

The company was cited as saying that strong volumes were recorded in all of its 20 terminal concessions in 14 countries and were higher than both the 2009 and 2008 volumes except for BCT (Poland) and BICT (Georgia), which are still below their record volumes in 2008.

ICTSI's flagship terminal at Manila International Container Terminal saw volumes rise by 28 per cent to 811,081 TEU in the first half, while its Brazilian operations at Tecon Suape experienced the largest volume growth of 48 per cent to 152,159 TEU.
(Source:www.schednet.com)