| China COSCO's profit up 54% y/y on subsidies |
| China COSCO Holdings' profit jumped 54% year on year (y/y) to CNY362.5 million (USD58.5 million) on government subsidies for scrapping old tonnage. Excluding one-off gains, its loss narrowed 81% y/y to CNY1.4 billion due to slump in fuel costs and contraction of its chartered-in fleet, according to the company's stock filing on 27 March. In 2014, China COSCO sped up offloading of old tonnage with a total of 56 scrapping of bulk carriers and container ships at 3.1 million dwt, which resulted in government subsidies of CNY1.4 billion. In 2013, the government rolled out policies with subsidies to encourage Chinese shipowners to scrap China-flagged old vessels. The subsidies will be doubled if the shipowners order new tonnage at Chinese shipyards to match the depleted tonnage. China COSCO's revenue rose 4% y/y to CNY64.4 billion. In 2014, the company's operating box-ship fleet expanded 7% y/y to 840,692 teu for 175 box ships. It also chartered out five box ships with a capacity of 42,476 teu. Its orderbook for new container ships totalled 117,960 teu. China COSCO's bulker tonnage shrank 17% y/y to 23.4 million dwt as of end of 2014. It had 40 bulk carriers with a combined 3.5 million dwt capacity on order. |