China Merchants Port Holdings (CM Port) has posted an 86% jump in net profit for the first half of 2017 after securing a one-off gain and handling higher volumes at its ports.
The Hong Kong conglomerate has reported that its net profit for the six months ended June 30 was US$402.6 million, up from $216 million a year earlier.
Revenue rose 5.5% to $518.8 million from $492 million.
The company attributed the earnings increase in part to a $103.9 million gain from the sale of its stake in China International Marine Containers during the period.
In the first half of the year, the Group’s ports handled a total container throughput of 50.16 million TEU, up by 8.9% year-on-year, enabling the Group to sustain its leading position among port operators in China.
The growth of the period benefitted from the cyclical recovery in the manufacturing and trading sectors and good growth momentum of regional economic performance in China.
Among which, the Group’s ports in Mainland China contributed container throughput of 37.88 million TEU, showing an increase of 9.9% year-on-year.
The Group’s ports in Hong Kong and Taiwan contributed an aggregate container throughput of 3.74 million TEU, a growth of 20.9% year-on-year.
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Total container throughput handled by the Group’s overseas ports was 8.54 million TEU, which stayed at the same level of that over the same period last year.
Bulk cargo volume handled by the Group’s ports increased by 14.6% year-on-year to 249 million tonnes, within which bulk cargo volume handled by ports in Mainland China totaled 246 million tonnes, an increase of 15.1% year-on-year.
As at 30 June 2017, the group employed 5,656 full-time staff, of which 187 worked in Hong Kong, 4,543 worked in Mainland China, and the remaining 926 worked overseas.
CM Port shared a positive outlook for the second half of the year, reporting that the global economy will “stay on the recovery trajectory”, mainly under the influence of demand from manufacturing and the global trade volume.
The IMF expects that the global economy will grow by 3.5% in 2017, up 0.3% as compared to that in 2016.
Developed economies are expected to grow by 2% (2016: 1.7%), while emerging and developing economies will grow by 4.6% (2016: 4.3%).
