SITC International expressed a positive outlook for the intra-Asia container shipping and logistics market in the second half of the year after posting US$510.6 million in revenue for the first six months of the year ended June 30, an increase of 27.4 percent year-on-year.
The China-based shipping logistics company said the revenue spike reflected the growth of both its sea freight and land-based logistics segments, largely driven by greater shipping volume due to a larger fleet, higher average freight rates, and increased business from its newly established sales channels.
Despite an industry overcapacity and increased costs, global container volume throughput for the first half of 2011 grew an estimated 4.5 percent compared to the same period in 2010, said Yang Shaopeng, SITC’s chairman of the board and executive director.
He said the company saw a 10.6 percent increase in sea freight volume to about 715,000 TEUs, and an increase of 12.3 percent in average freight rate to $551 per TEU. Land freight forwarding volume also increased, by 81.1 percent year-on-year to 624,000 TEUs, due to the expansion in the freight forwarding sales channels.
By segment, SITC’s revenue from its sea freight business increased by 24.2 percent year-on-year to $394.1 million, driven by the increases in shipping volume and the average freight rate.
Land-based logistics revenue jumped 92.9 percent year-on-year to $340.8 million, attributed to increases in freight forwarding volume.
“We are optimistic about the business environment for container shipping and logistics within intra-Asia market in the second half of 2011,” said Yang. “With the expansion of our business, we will continue to optimize our unique business model, expand our intra-Asia service network, as well as replicate our integrated service model within our network.”
SITC operates 50 trade lanes, including joint services and container slot exchange arrangements, covering major ports in China, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Vietnam, Thailand, and the Philippines. Its freight forwarding network covers 24 major cities in China, Japan, Korea, Vietnam and Hong Kong. The company also operates about 540,000 square meters of depot and 84,000 square meters of warehousing space.
