Similar to the other major containerized shipping companies, market in which it is the world's fourth largest operator with a fleet of ships of the capacity of 2.9 million teu, China's COSCO Shipping Holdings Co., which operates in this sector through COSCO Shipping Lines and OOCL as well as being also active in the port sector through participation of 58% in COSCO Shipping Ports, closed the annual 2022 financial year with record financial results mainly generated in the first half of the year, while the last quarter reported a marked reduction in revenues while also marking high profits for the period. October-December and lower only to those records in the last quarter of 2021.

In the whole of 2022 COSCO Shipping Holdings totaled record revenues of 391.1 billion yuan, an increase of 17.2% percent on the previous year (in terms of US dollars the revenue was 58.1 billion compared to 51.7 billion in the 2021). The contribution to the annual turnover of the core business of containerized maritime transport is admonished to the record value of 384.0 billion yuan (+ 17.1%). Operating profit and net profit have both reached record highs of 170.8 billion yuan (+ 29.8%) and 131.3 billion (+ 26.4%), respectively.

After 12 consecutive years of growth followed by the downturn recorded in 2009 as a result of the world financial crisis, in 2022 the volumes of containerized cargo carried by the Chinese group's fleet decreased by -9.3% percent, having been equal to 24.4 million teu compared to 26.9 million in 2021. The cargoes carried on domestic sea routes alone amounted to 4.8 million teu (-16.9%), while those carried by international maritime services amounted to 19.9 million teu (-7.3%), of which 8.2 million uneventful teu from intra-Asian services (-4.4%), 4.5 million teu from the Asia-Europe / Med (-11.4%) services, 4.5 million teu from the transatlantic services (-9.8%) and 2.7 million teu were transported on the other international routes (-5.0%).

If last year the ships operated by OOCL transported 7.1 million teu, with a downturn of -6.0% percent on 2021 ( of the February 13 2023), the container only parts of the company COSCO Shipping Lines carried almost 17.3 million teu (-10.6%), of which 4.5 million on domestic routes (-16.9%) and 12.8 million teu on international ones (-8.1%), including 4.8 million teu transported on the intra-Asian routes (-6.1%), 3.0 million teu on those Asia-Europe / Med (-14.9%), 2.7 million teu on the transpacified routes (-6.5%) and more than 2.2 million on the other international routes (-4.8%).

In 2022 the average revenue per container teu transported on international routes was 2,637 (+ 22.6%), with an average revenue of 2,703 dollari/teu for COSCO Shipping Lines (+ 21.8%) and 2,619 dollari/teu for OOCL (+ 26.7%), while the revenue medium for containers transported on domestic routes was 2,886 dollari/teu (+ 18.8%). The average revenue made by the international transpacifications services was 3,795 dollari/teu (+ 43.0%), the one produced by the Asia-Europe / Med services of 3,183 dollari/teu (+ 12.6%), the average revenue generated by intra-Asian services was 1,626 dollari/teu (+ 22.7%) and that arising from the other international services of 2,846 dollari/teu (+ 12.1%).

In the only fourth quarter of 2022, the COSCO Shipping Holdings Group posted revenue of 74.5 billion yuan, with a -27.1% percent contraction on the corresponding period of the previous annual financial year, of which 72.8 billion generated from the containerized maritime transport (-27.7%). Operating profit and net profit marked decreases in -15.5% and -37.3% respectively on the last record quarter of 2021, having been 28.7 billion yuan and 16.2 billion yuan.

In the fourth quarter of last year, the group's container carriers carried loads of 5.9 million teu (-9.1%). The average revenue per container transported on international routes was 1,876 dollari/teu (-33.1%).