SIMIC

The profit is on track to be $1 billion in the black for the full year.

"K" Line, MOL, and NYK is the first significant carrier to report financial results for Q3 in a period that's assumed to be more of a bumper period for an industry surprisingly boosted by strong demand.

However, ONE's revenue for H1 was down at $5.92 billion and the carrier's profit for the six months improved to $682 million, compared to $126 million before.

"From Q1 and through Q2 the supply and demand balance improved for all trades, most notably Asia-North America where liftings recovered to the level of the previous year," said ONE.

ONE also saw a 23 per cent fall in the average cost of bunker fuel for its ships to $328 per ton. It also saw the deployment of THE Alliance member Hyundai Merchant Marine (HMM) newbuild 24,000-TEU ultra large container vessel (ULCV) fleet on the Asia-North Europe trade lane.

The transpacific trade carried 1,375,000 TEU on the leg during the H1 period, which is up 125,000 TEU compared to the year prior.

ONE had a load factor 97 per cent on Asia-Europe head haul and the liftings of 766,000 TEU was down 116,000 TEU.

"The low volume development is clearly the result of the aggressive blanking programme that helped cut costs and improve profitability at the height of the pandemic impact," said Sea Intelligence CEO Lars Jensen.

Cosco subsidiary Orient Overseas International (OOCL), reported 11.1 per cent growth in transpacific volumes in Q2, compared with just 0.9 per cent by ONE.