Orient Overseas Container Line(OOCL)has made a positive start to 2010 with increases in both liftings and revenues.In a quarterly operational update the Hong Kong liner operator said first revenues were up 18.9% on a year ago to over $1.1bn.

The largest increases came on its Asia to Europe trades with revenues up 85%, or $127.6m, to $277m, OOCL said.The intra-Asia and Australasia services saw revenues increase by nearly 31% to $344m. Transpacific revenues fell 6.4% to $383m.OOCL also reported a year on year rise of 7.2% in liftings in the first quarter to just over 1mteu compared to the year ago figure of 978,162-teu.Intra-Asia and Australasia saw the largest increases with volumes up 13.6% to 510,080-teu.Asia to Europe rose 10.3% to 181,210-teu.Transpacific volumes were down 3.3% to 270,261-teu,while the transatlantic trade saw volumes inch up 2% to 87,190-teu.

OOCL said that overall revenue per teu increased by 10.9% compared to the first quarter of last year, but gave no figures.With a 12.1% decrease in loadable capacity, the overall load factor improved by 14.6% from the same period in 2009.

Source:Tradewinds,May 2,2010