COSCO Pacific Ltd., Asia’s third-largest container-terminal operator, agreed to sell sea-cargo boxes to Austria’s SLI Dritte Verwaltungsgesellschaft mbH & Co. KG for $194.7 million to fund other investments.

The deal covers the equivalent of about 104,663 20-foot standard containers, representing about 8.4 percent of the boxes owned by Cosco Pacific at the end of last year, the company said in a Hong Kong stock exchange statement late November 21.

It didn’t give further details on how the funds would be used.

Cosco Pacific plans to add an average of 20 berths worldwide until 2010, as surging global trade boosts sea-cargo volumes.

The company’s terminal ventures, including ones in Hong Kong, Singapore and Dalian, China, boosted container traffic 20 percent in the first 10 months of the year.

Florens Management Services (Macao Commercial Offshore) Ltd., a Cosco Pacific unit, will continue to manage the containers following the sale, according to the statement.

Cosco Pacific’s first-half sales fell 13 percent to $147.3 million after a container-leasing unit sold about 60 percent of its sea-cargo boxes in June last year.

Profit from container leasing fell 27 percent to $50.2 million.

The company owned and managed a container fleet of 1.49 million boxes as of September 30, up 22 percent from a year earlier, according to an October 29 statement. The terminal operator rose 0.5 percent to HK$20.25 in Hong Kong on November 22.

The stock, a Hang Seng Index member, has gained 11 percent this year, trailing a 33-percent rise in the city’s benchmark. (Bloomberg)

Petrolift says fourth vessel to arrive next month

PETROLIFT Inc., an oil and gas-tanker operator whose clients include the country’s largest petroleum firms, will have its fourth double-hull vessel early December.

A GROUP of shippers in Mindanao has requested shipping firms to deploy its much larger vessel going to and from the southern part of the Philippines in order to effect an economy of scale that will reduce shipping rates in the long run.

HANJIN Heavy Industries & Construction Co., the first South Korean company to export vessels, said it will spend 449.2 billion won ($480 million) to build a second dock at its yard in the Philippines.

COSCO Pacific Ltd., Asia’s third-largest container-terminal operator, agreed to sell sea-cargo boxes to Austria’s SLI Dritte Verwaltungsgesellschaft mbH & Co. KG for $194.7 million to fund other investments.