(30 October 2023, Shanghai) – COSCO SHIPPING Holdings Co., Ltd. (“COSCO SHIPPING Holdings” or “the Company”, SSE: 601919; HKEx: 1919) announced today the third quarter results for 2023 (the “Reporting Period”).

For the year to date, the container shipping industry has faced multiple challenges such as weak shipping demand and rising capacity supply, leading to a significant decline in the market freight rates from last year. In the face of the changing market, COSCO SHIPPING Holdings has always adhered to the “customer-oriented” principle, continuously promoted digital, intelligent, green and low-carbon transformation, and deepened value creation, thereby enabling the Company to stabilize its profit.

        Operational momentum in the first three quarters remained stable:

l  During the Reporting Period, the Company achieved revenue of RMB134.56 billion. Its earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) were RMB33.23 billion. Net profit amounted to RMB26.00 billion, and profit attributable to equity holders was RMB22.07 billion.

l  As the Company proceeded with the development of digital supply chains, the revenue from supply chains was RMB21.84 billion (excluding sea freight) and accounted for 16.9% of container shipping revenue, representing an increase of 8.69 percentage points year-on-year.

l  After the optimization of initial equity investment, the Company’s investment income for the first three quarters reached RMB3.77 billion, representing an 86.71% year-on-year increase and thus helping it to effectively tackle the cyclical impacts.

l  As at the end of 30 September 2023, the Company’s liability-to-asset ratio was 47.58%, representing a decrease of 3 percentage points compared with the end of last year. Meanwhile, its asset structure was further optimized.

l  The Company continued to repurchase its shares. As at 30 September 2023, it repurchased a total of 12,434,154 A-shares and 24,912,000 H-shares. The Company took action to boost investors’ confidence.

       Business transformation and upgrading continued to move forward

       Sustained global development. For the year to date, six new eco-friendly 24,000-TEU container vessels of OOCL (a subsidiary of COSCO SHIPPING Holdings) has been put into operation on the Asia-Europe routes, and one new 14,100-TEU container vessel of COSCO SHIPPING Lines(a subsidiary of COSCO SHIPPING Holdings) is expected to commence operation on the Far East-South America West Coast route. In the third quarter, COSCO SHIPPING Holdings launched a number of new shipping routes, including Europea-South America East Coast route, Kenya-Mozambique feeder route and Mediterranean-North Africa feeder route. It upgraded the Far East-Africa route and the Singapore Malaysia Indonesia route. While strengthening and optimizing the layout of shipping capacity for the main European and American routes, it closely monitored changes in the industrial chain, increased its    shipping capacity in emerging, regional and third-country markets, hence ensuring the smooth and convenient international trade.

     Remarkable achievements in development of “digital supply chain”. COSCO SHIPPING Holdings continued to push for the innovative application of artificial intelligence, Internet of Things and blockchain technology, thus making the data visible and controllable during the entire route and process. As at September 2023, COSCO SHIPPING Holdings had launched more than ten packages of digital supply chain products under the “Talent” and the “Hi” series, providing end-to-end services including shipping, road and railway transportation, customs declaration and warehousing services for goods destined for North America, Chile, Mexico, Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia and Greece etc. On this basis, COSCO SHIPPING Holdings continued to improve its capabilities for providing supply chain solutions to industries such as automobiles, cross-border e-commerce, home appliances, photovoltaic and lithium batteries, whereby gaining wide recognition from customers.

     Steady progress in green and low-carbon transformation. As a pioneer in promoting eco-friendly low-carbon transformation, COSCO SHIPPING Holdings continued to accelerate the build-up of a green and low-carbon fleet, established a system to secure green and low-carbon fuel supply, and optimized fleet energy efficiency management to adapt to new environmental regulations. In September, COSCO SHIPPING SAGITTARIUS was successfully refueled with biofuels in Rotterdam, which marked another important milestone in the green and low-carbon transformation of COSCO SHIPPING Holdings. The Company took an active role to lead the industry to accelerate green and low-carbon transformation, released the “Initiative to Promote the Use of Shore Power by Vessels at Berth”, advocated for the construction and use of shore power facilities in the port and shipping industry, and made joint efforts to promote the development of green and low-carbon shipping services.

     In the future, COSCO SHIPPING Holdings will uphold its positioning as a “global digital supply chain operation and investment platform with a core focus on container shipping”. It will accelerate the integration and redevelopment of business chain, intelligent digital supply chain and green industrial chain, make greater efforts to facilitate the dual circulation in domestic and overseas markets, provide better services to customers, and create greater value for shareholders.