HONG KONG's Orient Overseas Container Line (OOCL), now a Cosco unit, posted a 63 per cent year-on-year decline in second quarter revenue to US$1.97 billion while enjoying a 1.3 per cent increase in liftings in the same period.

The discrepancy, according to a Hong Kong stock exchange filing, was due to the decline in revenue per container, which fell 59.8 per cent year on year.

The transatlantic and intra-Asia/Australasia trades saw 36.9 per cent and 55.4 per cent drops in revenue between Q2 2023 and the Q2 2022.

OOCL's loadable capacity increase outstripped liftings growth. Liftings grew at just 1.3 per cent in Q2 2023 while loadable capacity for the line was up by 8.7 per cent with the company starting an intake of megamax 24,000 TEU capacity newbuildings into its fleet. As a result overall load factor was down by 5.9 per cent in Q2 2023 compared to the same quarter last year.

For the first six months of 2023 parent company OOIL's revenues were $4.15 billion down by 60.2 per cent year on year.

Xeneta naming and faming chart claims OOCL is the most efficient carrier on the US east coast-Far East run, edging out CMA CGM and MSC last week.