OOCL doubles 2021 revenue to $15.7 billion on higher freight rates

January 25, 2022: Hong Kong-listed Orient Overseas Container Line (OOCL) more than doubled revenue (unaudited) to $15.7 billion for the year ended December 31, 2021 compared to $7.5 billion in 2020 on a marginal increase (2 two percent) in liftings to 7.6 million. 

Average revenue per TEU increased 107 percent compared to the same period last year.

The carrier said record earnings were despite severe congestion around the network, loadable capacity declining over 14 percent and the overall load factor was three percent lower than the same period in 2020. 

While Asia-Europe revenue zoomed over 200 percent to $4.7 billion, Trans-Pacific revenue was up over 85 percent to $5.6 billion. Intra-Asia/Australasia revenue also reported strong growth.

For the fourth quarter, OOCL reported revenue of $4.9 billion as against $2.4 billion in Q42020 - an increase of 101 percent. Total liftings, however, dropped 17 percent to 1.8 million. "Overall average revenue per TEU increased 142 percent compared to the fourth quarter of last year."

Earlier this month, Maersk had reported unaudited fourth quarter revenue ahead of expectations at $18.5 billion and profits of $8 billion.