COSCO Shipping Lines reported a 12.4 per cent year-on-year increase in throughput in the first of half 2018, citing economies of scale and improved management as volumes hit 11.24 million TEU.

The carrier also announced a 15.8 per cent increase in capacity, which hit two million TEU for the first time, and at the end of June 2018 the company's fleet totalled 393 containerships.

The company has utilised 60 per cent of its fleet size, around 189 vessels and 1.25 million TEU, along the routes of the Belt and Road Initiative, where the company has 274 berths in operation.

When including the capacity of the recently acquired Orient Overseas (International) Limited (OOIL), Cosco Shipping Holdings is now ranked third in the world for shipping capacity with over 2.7 million TEU.

It is the largest merger and acquisition in the global shipping industry so far in terms of the size of the transaction and Cosco will implement a dual-brand strategy.

Cosco Shipping Holdings' revenue generated from container shipping and related business amounted to CNY42.4 billion (US$5.2 billion, up 1.29 per cent year on year.

The increase in container shipping revenue was lower than heavy container volume, mostly due to the downward pressure of the market freight rate and the decrease in the average exchange rate by 6.75 per cent for the dollar.

Cosco Shipping Holdings reported a net profit of CNY40.8 million, which it attributed to container shipping business and the profit contribution of the terminal business. Over the same period last year, the company reported a net profit of CNY1.9 billion.