Orient Overseas (International) Ltd, the parent company of Hong Kong's OOCL, reports that its revenue for the year ended December 31, 2006 grew 5.6 per cent to US$4.25 billion compared to $4.03 billion in the previous year.

Revenue in the unaudited fourth quarter report amounted to $1.10 billion, a year-on-year rise of 8.3 per cent.

Total liftings in 2006 increased by 10.5 per cent over the previous year to 4,253,459 TEU. Q4 liftings surged 15 per cent to 1,104,700 TEU compared to 900,629 TEU in the same quarter in 2005.

The company said in a statement that the overall load factor in 2006 was comparable with that of 2005 despite an increase of 10.8 per cent in loadable capacity during the year.

The overall load factor in the final quarter of 2006 was 2.7 per cent higher than that recorded in Q4 2005 despite an increase of 11.3 per cent in loadable capacity.

The average revenue per TEU decreased by 4.5 per cent in 2006 compared to 2005, while the revenue per TEU in Q4 dropped 5.9 per cent over the same period in the previous year.