COSCO Shipping Ports Ltd saw nearly repeated container throughput figures for 2020 compared to 2019 and saw profits increase in its 2020 End of Year (EoY) financial results.
Announced on 31 March, COSCO saw total throughput remaining stable at 123,824,575 TEU in 2020, compared to 2019’s figures of 123,784,335 TEU.
A strong end to 2020 saw total throughput up by 3.5% in the fourth quarter, mainly driven by throughput growth of the Pearl River Delta, Southwest Coast, and Overseas regions.
Total throughput of the Greater China region decreased by 0.4% to 95,380,835 TEU in 2020, compared to 2019’s figure of 95,789,852 TEU – and accounted for 77.0% of the Group’s total.
Total throughput of the overseas region increased by 1.6% to 28,443,740 TEU in 2020 and accounted for 23.0% of the Group’s total.
Due to the decrease in global economic demand impacted by the epidemic, the throughput at Piraeus Container Terminal decreased by 5.1% to 4,896,886 TEU.
COSCO increased its 2020 net profit Year-on-Year (YoY) to $347.5 million, a 12.8% increase. Its share of profits from joint ventures and associates increased by 2% compared to 2019.
2020 fourth quarter results highlight that gross profit increased by almost a fifth YoY to $63 million, with net profit rising by 11% YoY to $98.2m million
“Although the global macroeconomic condition is facing major challenges and countries around the world are still facing uncertainty brought by the COVID-19 Epidemic, COSCO Shipping Ports achieved continuous improvement in both throughput and earnings in the fourth quarter,” COSCO said.
“Looking ahead to 2021, COSCO will continue to improve its global terminal portfolio and realise the company’s scale expansion strategy by focusing on project development and overseas investment.”
The company aims to continue to capture asset merger and restructuring opportunities to expand its global terminal network for 2021 and beyond, and will continue digitalisation initiatives for customers.
“Acquisitions and disposals as well as accelerating expansion of supply chain extension projects help optimise the terminal portfolio,” COSCO said.
“While promoting the growth in scale through its global network, the group will continuously consolidate lean operations and strengthen management control capacity of the terminals.”
