COSCO Shipping Holdings, the parent of OOCL and Cosco Shipping, is expecting its first half 2021 net profit to rise to US$5.7 billion from a $139 million profit earned in the corresponding period the previous year.

State-owned Cosco issued a profit alert to the Hong Kong Exchange, citing a 133 per cent increase during the first half in spot and contract rates represented by the China Containerised Freight Index compared to the same period last year.

The substantial profitability generated by carriers in the 2021 first quarter - when earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) of $27.1 billion eclipsed the full-year 2020 EBIT of $25.4 billion - has continued and is on course for the $80 billion to $100 billion full-year profit in 2021 forecast this week from London's Drewry Maritime Research.

Cosco's profit alert was issued as subsidiary OOCL released its second quarter performance. Although no profit and loss figures were provided in the operational update, the carrier recorded a 55 per cent increase in revenue compared to pre-pandemic 2019, with huge increases in average rate levels on its major trades.