COSCO Shipping Holdings Co Ltd announced that net profit for the first quarter of the year ending March 31, 2018, has fallen 33 per cent to CNY181 million (US$28.3 million) from CNY270 million in the same period last year.

Revenues during the three-month period totalled CNY21.9 billion, an increase of CNY1.8 billion or 9.06 per cent as compared to the same period of last year.

Revenues from container shipping and related business amounted to CNY20.6 billion, representing an increase of CNY1.3 billion or 6.5 per cent over Q1 2017. Revenues from terminal and related business amounted to CNY1.5 billion, representing an increase of CNY642 million or 72.1 per cent compared to the same period of last year.

Revenues from container shipping amounted to CNY18.5 billion, an 8 per cent increase.

Cosco saw an increase in the number of containers it carried overall and on most routes.

In total, it carried 5.2 million TEU in the first quarter, 11.8 per cent more than the 4.7 million TEU in first quarter of 2017.

On individual trade routes volumes: Increased 7.5 per cent in the transpacific to 762,455 TEU; decreased 10 per cent on the Asia-Europe lane, including the Mediterranean, to 933,378 TEU; increased 22 per cent on intra-Asia lanes, including Australia, to 1.5 million TEU; increased 52.7 per cent on other international trade lanes to 556,341 TEU; and increased 10.4 per cent on domestic Chinese routes to 1.4 million TEU.

The container terminals in which Cosco is a participant handled 27.2 million TEU in the first quarter of 2018, an increase of 38 per cent when compared 19.7 million TEU in the same period in 2017. At terminals it controls, the volume was up 38.5 per cent to 5.2 million TEU, according to American Shipper.