Hong Kong-listed shipping line SITC International predicted ocean freight rates will rise in the fourth quarter, after it posted a profit of US$88.6 million in the nine months ended 30 September, up 334% compared to a year earlier.
Revenue earned by the privately-owned China-based shipping logistics company in the first nine months totalled US$647.4 million, up 34.3% year-on-year.
"This increase primarily reflected higher average freight rate and growth in shipping volume on the sea freight logistics business and growth in the average freight forwarding fee and freight forwarding volume on the land-based logistics business," said the company, which runs a string of intra-Asia services and operates more than 40 boxships.
Average freight rates achieved by the carrier over the first three quarter climbed almost 14% to over $500 per teu as volumes handled increased 17.7% year-on-year to almost one million teu.
Chief Executive Yang Xianxiang predicted that intra-Asia freight rates would rise in the fourth quarter.
"The company focused on transporting consumer goods," he said. "The freight volume of such goods is higher in the fourth quarter because there are several holidays." |
