The container ship Xin Yan Tian, owned by China Shipping Container Lines Co. Ltd., sits at Jebel Ali Port in Dubai, the United Arab Emirates. Jebel Ali Port, owned by DP World Ltd., the fourth-biggest port operator, is the largest in the Middle East. China Shipping Container Lines Co. Ltd., the second-largest in Asia, owns and operates container vessels for the international and domestic container marine-transportation services. --Bloomberg

China Shipping Container Lines Co., the country’s second-largest cargo-box carrier, more than tripled 2007 profit after raising prices and hauling more goods from Asia to Europe and the US. Net income climbed to 3.22 billion yuan ($459 million), or 0.34 yuan a share, from 859.2 million yuan, or 0.09 yuan, a year earlier, the Shanghai-based shipping line said in a Hong Kong stock-exchange statement on Wednesday. Sales jumped 27 percent to 38.83 billion yuan.

China Shipping raised rates on routes to Europe and the Mediterranean 38 percent last year as exports of clothing, toys and furniture surged. The company and larger rival China Cosco Holding Co. are also carrying more goods domestically as congestion and higher gasoline prices erode the advantages of moving goods by truck.

“The outlook is pretty optimistic,” said Geoffrey Cheng, a Hong Kong-based analyst at Daiwa Institute of Research, before the earnings announcement. “Domestic demand is very strong and the market has overestimated the impact of the US slowdown.”

The shipping line gained 7.7 percent to HK$3.22 at 11:18 a.m. in Hong Kong trading, the biggest rise in a week. Its Shanghai shares rose 3.9 percent to 6.88 yuan. The mainland stock has risen 3.9 percent since it began trading in December, compared with the benchmark CSI 300 Index’s 32-percent decline.

China Shipping’s container volume rose 29 percent last year to 7.3 million. Volumes on domestic lines gained 61 percent, European shipments rose 7.9 percent and transpacific shipments rose 14 percent.

New ships

The company raised 15.5 billion yuan in its Shanghai stock sale to expand its fleet as rising demand for Asian-made goods in Europe and the US boosts shipping volumes.

Higher rates, fuel hedging and the introduction of larger ships helped China Shipping mitigate the impact of rising fuel prices. The company’s cost of service per container fell 7 percent last year even as the price of bunker fuel, used by ships, rose 71 percent in Singapore trading. Fuel accounted for 22 percent of operating costs in 2007, little changed from a year earlier.

The company’s fleet capacity rose 12 percent last year, as it added more ships. Larger ships, able to carry 4,000 cargo boxes or more, accounted for 82 percent of capacity.

The company proposed a final dividend of 0.04 yuan a share, unchanged from a year earlier.

China Cosco is scheduled to report earnings on April 23. (Bloomberg)

Haulers gird for war against P0.10 government levy

TWO industry associations are all set to fight the P0.10 levy to form part of an oil-spill fund when they meet government officials next month.

THE Magsaysay group of companies is eyeing ISO certification for its 12 shipping companies, including a unit that transports passengers to Corregidor Island in Bataan.

China Shipping Container Lines Co., the country’s second-largest cargo-box carrier, more than tripled 2007 profit after raising prices and hauling more goods from Asia to Europe and the US. Net income climbed to 3.22 billion yuan ($459 million),

Port operator International Container Terminal Services Inc. (ICTSI) said the strike that hit its Poland facility was finally over.

Residual-fuel cargo prices in the New York Harbor market fell, following crude oil futures drop.

Crude oil dropped on forecasts that US stockpiles increased for the 11th time in 12 weeks as fuel consumption dropped.

Australia’s Newcastle port, the world’s biggest coal-export harbor, increased shipments of the fuel by 6.8 percent in the first quarter, boosted by a rise in March loadings from the previous month.