OOCL Hurt by Soft Rates and Asia/Europe Volume Slide

zoom Hong Kong-based container carrier Orient Overseas Container Line (OOCL) marked a 12.2% decrease in total revenues in the quarter ended September 30, despite handling 1.9% more containers compared to the same period a year earlier. OOCL was hit the hardest on its Asia/Europe services which brought 32.2% less revenue and carried 11.5% less containers in the third quarter of 2015 compared to the same period a year earlier. The company earned USD 210.2 million on trade routes linking Asia to Europe while handling 222,872 TEUs, compared to USD 310.2 million in revenue and 251,861 TEUs handled in 3Q2014. The company also marked an 8.6% slide in revenue and 9.6% slide in volume on the Trans-Atlantic services. The decreases on these two services were partially offset by volume increases on the companys Trans-Pacific and Intra-Asia/Australasia services, which saw a 9.5% and 4.5% surges in volumes, respectively. However, despite the rise in volumes, both the Trans-pacific and the Intra-Asia/Australasia services recorded a 0.2% and a 13.4% dip in revenues, respectively. Overall, OOCL reported USD 1.332 billion in total revenues, and 1,447,464 TEUs in volumes for the quarter ended September 30, 2015. The companys loadable capacity increased by 12.3%, but the overall load factor was 7.1% lower than the same period in 2014. Overall average revenue per TEU decreased by 13.8% compared to the third quarter of last year. For the first nine months of 2015, OOCLs total volumes decreased by 0.9% over the same period last year and total revenues recorded an 8.4% drop. Loadable capacity increased by 6%, but the overall load factor was 5% lower than the same period in 2014. Overall average revenue per TEU decreased by 7.6% compared to the same 9-month period last year.