China Shipping Container Lines (CSCL) returned to profit and almost doubled its revenue for 2010 due chiefly to higher volumes of loaded cargoes and freight rates, Seatrade-asia reports. The Hong Kong-listed box liner posted a full year revenue of RMB34.81bn ($4.47bn) in 2010, up 76.3% from RMB19.74bn in 2009. The company erased a net loss of RMB6.49bn in 2009 to post a net profit of RMB4.2bn last year, it announced Tuesday. Li Shaode, chairman of CSCL, said that since 2010, the container shipping market was characterised by a few key developments. They include proactively idling excess capacity by shipping companies, universal application of extra slow steaming in long haul, increase in cooperative trade lanes, shortage of boxes and improved competitive relationship because containers supply could not catch up with the growth in cargo volume. “Such traits and a reviving global economy, the container shipping market thus became prosperous swiftly,” Li commented. He added that the year ahead faces various uncertainties due to the changing situation in the Middle East and geographical disasters such as the earthquake in Japan, on top of rising oil prices and the gap between demand and supply. “Therefore in the next two to three years, the container shipping market would be in the process of striving to stabilise development and gradually attain a balance between market demand and market supply,” he said.
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