Following the very negative trend followed by the others the world's leading container shipping companies and started in the third quarter of last year, in the first quarter of 2023 also the Chinese COSCO Shipping Holdings Co., which operates in this sector with the brands COSCO Shipping Lines and OOCL, has further marked deterioration in performance financial and operational that has not been arrested from the increase of +11.4% of the revenues of the company terminalista COSCO Shipping Ports, of which the shipowning group Chinese owns 59.4% of the capital.

In the first three months of this year COSCO Shipping's revenues Holdings Co. amounted to 47.34 billion yuan (6.9 billion) of dollars), with a significant decrease of -55.1% on the same period of 2022. The contribution to the turnover of the containerized sea transport was 45.70 billion of yuan (-56.0%). The sharp reduction in revenues is a consequence of the collapse in freight value. In this respect, the COSCO Group has highlighted that in the first quarter of 2023 it fell by -68.45% the average value of China (Export) Containerized Freight Index (CCFI), the index developed by the Shanghai Shipping Exchange to evaluate the trend in the value of spot and contractual freight rates of containerized exports from Chinese ports to the main world markets.

In the first three months of this year it decreased The amount of operating costs incurred by the shipowning group COSCO that has been attested to 37,74 billion of yuan (-43.3%). Operating profit was 9.85 billion (-75.2%), with a contribution of 9.29 billion (-76.5%) from the segment of containerized shipping. COSCO Shipping Holdings Co. has closed the first quarter of 2023 with a net profit of 8.58 billion yuan (- 73.6%), of which 7,59 billion (- 77.1%) generated from containerized maritime transport activities.

In the period January-March of this year the fleet of Container ship of the group transported total cargo containerized pairs to 5,45 million teu (- 11.5%), of which 3,71 millions of teu transported by the ships of COSCO Shipping only Lines (-14.9%). The largest decline in global volumes transported took place on transpacific routes, on which the ships of the group have enlivened 984 thousand teu (- 18.8%), of which 538 thousand teu transported by COSCO Shipping Lines (- 26.8%). On routes Asia-Europe are transported 1,06 million teu (- 13.5%), including 668 thousand teu on board the ships of the main Group Company (-18.0%). In addition, the services operated in the Intra-Asian region transported 1,85 million teu (- 7.8%), of which 498 thousand teu transported by COSCO Shipping Lines (-10.7%), and on Chinese domestic routes were transported 938 thousand teu (- 12.0%) entirely enlivened from the ships of COSCO Shipping Lines. Finally, on the other international routes, volumes embarked from the ships have been pairs to 626 thousand teu (- 5.1%), of which 498 thousand teu on the ships of the main carrier of the group (- 10.7%).

The total containerized volumes transported in the first three months of 2023 generated revenues of 42.30 billion yuan (-57.4%), of which 10.34 billion generated by services transpacific (-65.8%), 9.72 billion from Asia-Europe (-66.7%), €11.9 billion from intra-Asian services (-49.2%), €2.76 billion billion from domestic maritime services (- 5.8%) and 7.49 billion yuan from other international services (-43.7%).

In the first quarter of this year the average revenue per container transported by COSCO was $1,126 compared to $2,536 in the corresponding period of 2022. The Chinese group announced that the price paid for the purchase of the fuel for its ships in the first three months of 2023 is State of 655 dollars/ton, with an increase of +3.5% that is far below the double-digit increases recorded in the seven previous quarters.

At 31 March last, the fleet of the COSCO group consisted of 475 container ships with a total cargo capacity of 2.89 million teu (+0.1% compared to 31 December 2022). The group's orderbook currently includes 43 new ships for a Additional capacity pairs to 864 thousand teu.