COSCO reports wider loss in H1

China COSCO Holdings Co, China's largest ocean shipping company, said on Wednesday its net loss widened 79.7 percent to hit 4.87 billion yuan ($767 million) in the first half of the year.

Following the net loss of 10.4 billion yuan in 2011, the loss in the first-half may endanger the listing of COSCO shares if the company keeps losing money. Three consecutive years of losses will automatically delist the stock.

The company said in its half-year report that the major reason behind the losses is the downturn in the dry-bulk market. The Baltic Dry Index, a major gauge of dry-bulk trading, decreased 31.3 percent in the first half of the year.

COSCO's dry-bulk shipping volume dropped 17.7 percent compared with the same period last year. Operating revenue dropped 32.1 percent to 8.3 billion yuan.

Dry-bulk shipping is facing significant oversupply due to the weakening global economy and the slowdown of China's economic growth. The capacity of container shipping companies grew by more than 15 percent, while the demand rose by just 6.2 percent.

Another major reason for the losses may be the company's ill-timed business expansion strategy. COSCO's container volumes on Asia-Europe routes rose 22 percent from a year earlier and the volumes in trans-Pacific lanes increased 15 percent, according to a report in Bloomberg Businessweek.

COSCO took a mistaken bet on the continuous fast growth of China's economy and greatly expanded its shipping capacity in an actually gloomy shipping market, analysts said.

In 2009, COSCO lost 7.5 billion yuan but managed to achieve a profit in 2010. However, the company registered losses again in 2011 and this year. Though the prices of container shipping services increased, the high cost of fuel and the fluctuation of foreign exchange rates made the overall situation bleak for the company.