Box liner company Orient Overseas Container Line (OOCL) reported higher volumes and revenue for the first quarter of 2018 compared to the same period a year ago.
The Hong Kong-based company announced in a statement a 7.5% increase in total volumes to 1,579,578 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) for the first quarter (ended March 31, 2018), up from 1,470,017 TEUs in the same period last year.
Three of the four trade routes showed stronger cargo traffic in the period covered, with Asia-Europe posting a 20.5% growth and the trans-Pacific with a 16.3% acceleration. The trans-Atlantic volume expanded by only 2.2%, while only Intra-Asia/Australasia contracted, falling by 1.1%.
Total revenues increased by 16.3% to US$1.337 billion in the first quarter of the year from $1.185 billion a year ago. Loadable capacity increased by 16.0% and the overall load factor was 6.4% lower than the same period in 2017. Overall average revenue per TEU increased by 8.3% compared to the first quarter of last year.
All four lanes notched growth in Q1 from a year ago. The Asia-Europe lane registered the biggest increase, with revenue ballooning by 23.8%. The trans-Pacific followed with revenue growth of 19.2%. Despite weaker volumes, the Intra-Asia/Australasia nonetheless posted a remarkable 13% revenue spike, while the trans-Atlantic booked a 1.9% growth.
