China’s Cosco Group reported a loss of $1.1 billion for 2009 as the weak economy hammered the company’s container, dry bulk and terminal businesses. Revenue fell 48.1 percent to $10 billion for the 12 months ended Dec. 31. Cosco’s container business posted a 43 percent drop in revenue to $3.1 billion, excluding income from chartered-out vessels, as container volume fell 9 percent to 5.2 million 20-foot equivalent units.
The company said it expects a recovery in shipping this year, led by developing countries. Cosco said it has been expanding domestically to capitalize on stimulus-aided growth in its home market. “The Asian regions, particularly the PRC, are expected to have stronger presence in the shipping sector in the post-financial crisis era,” Cosco said in a statement.
At the end of 2009 Cosco had 146 container ships with capacity of 561,038 TEUs, an increase of 13 percent from a year earlier. Excluding chartered-out tonnage, Cosco’s fleet capacity was down 1.7 percent. The carrier ended 2009 with an order book of 54 container ships with 414,926 TEUs of capacity.
Cosco’s dry bulk business revenue plunged 61.8 percent to $4 billion as dry-bulk ton-miles fell 7.6 percent. At year end Cosco operated 439 dry bulk vessels with total capacity of 36.5 million deadweight tons. On order were 30 bulk ships with capacity of 4.3 million dwt. Container traffic through Cosco’s terminals fell 5.5 percent to 43.55 million TEUs.
During 2009 Cosco acquired equity stakes in six terminals, raising to 28 the number of terminals in which the company has ownership. Cosco said it now has a 6.1 percent share of the container terminal market, making it the fifth-largest operator.