Hong Kong-based Orient Overseas Container Line (OOCL) delivered stronger revenues in the first quarter of 2019, with the largest rise experienced in the Trans-Atlantic trade.
For the quarter ended March 31, 2019, OOCL’s revenues increased by 5.9% to USD 1.46 billion from USD 1.37 billion reported in the same quarter a year earlier.
Revenue in the Trans-Atlantic trade surged by 16.3 percent year-over-year reaching USD 140.59 million, against a revenue of USD 120.88 million. The company’s Trans-Pacific, Asia/Europe and Intra-Asia/Australasia trades also delivered increases in revenue.
In the Trans-Pacific, revenue was up by 5.6 percent at USD 558.47 million, Asia/Europe revenue increased by 8.4 percent to USD 304.9 million, while Intra-Asia/Australasia revenue marked a slight rise of 2 percent, reaching USD 456.1 million.
Loadable capacity for the period increased by 2.3%, while the overall load factor was 0.5 percent lower than in the first quarter of 2018. Overall average revenue per TEU inflated by 4.2 percent compared to the first quarter of last year.
Total volumes continued rising and reached 1.6 million TEU, a 1.6 percent change during the three-month period.
Trans-Atlantic also recorded a strong rise in volumes, which jumped by 13.4 percent in the period to 116,822 TEU. Asia/Europe followed with an increase of 7.5%, handling 325,240 TEU, while Intra-Asia/Australasia volumes notched a minor rise or 0.8 percent. Trans-Pacific was the only service that witnessed a drop of 3.6 percent in volumes, handling 441,184 TEU during the period.