Net profit for 2013 at shipping giant Orient Overseas Limited plunged 84% to $47 million, according to figures released yesterday.
Revenue at the Hong Kong shipper also took a substantial hit, falling from $6.5 billion in 2012 to $6.2 billion last year.
"Seaborne trade growth for the liner industry was subdued in 2013," said Chairman CC Tung. "Freight levels were disappointing, especially during the first half of the year."
The influx of ultra-large containerships onto the Asia-Europe tradelane over the past year displaced a number of post-panamax vessels onto other routes, and this is said to have severely hurt the company's performance.
“The deployment of the largest newbuildings to the Asia-Europe trade triggered cascading into the transpacific trade, which in turn further displaced a considerable number of mid-sized ships to other trade lanes," said Tung.
“This cascading effect brought considerable excess capacity to the intra-Asia and Australasia trades as well as the transpacific trade, and added volatility to the market,” he added.
Chairman Chee Chen Tung and family ranked No. 609 on the 2014 Forbes Billionaires List published last week with estimated wealth of $2.8 billion.
© 2014 - European Supermarket Magazine by Enda Dowling
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