COSCO Pacific Ltd, Asia's third- largest container-terminal operator, said yesterday that its 2007 net profits rose 47 percent from a year earlier, helped by surging exports and the sale of a stake in a bank.

Net earnings rose to $427.8 million from $291.1 million a year earlier.

COSCO Pacific booked a $90.7 million gain after it sold a stake in Chong Hing Bank Ltd to focus on sea-cargo. The company follows larger rivals Hutchison Port Holdings Ltd and PSA International Pte in posting higher profits after a 26 percent jump in mainland exports last year boosted global trade.

"The company will have to make more acquisitions to keep up its growth rate," said Jimmy Lam, a Hong Kong-based analyst at BOC International Holdings Ltd. "The rate of trade growth may slow slightly this year."

COSCO Pacific's 19 global container terminal ventures boosted total volume 22 percent last year to 39.8 million boxes, helped by the addition of ventures in the mainland ports of Ningbo and Guangzhou, as well as in Egypt. Traffic growth slipped to 19 percent in the first two months of this year.

Subprime problems

"The US subprime problems are certainly having an effect on China's exports," Xu Minjie, the Hong Kong-based company's managing director, told reporters yesterday. "Shipments to the US are slowing, but exports to Europe are still growing."

The company will more than double its investments in new terminals to $605 million this year, predominately dry-bulk facilities, Xu said.

The Baltic Dry Index, a measure of rates for shipping iron ore, coal and other bulk cargos, has risen 40 percent in the past year on China's demand for raw materials.

Container leasing

Profits from the company's container leasing and sales business fell 36 percent to $118 million after it sold fewer boxes. The company, the operator of the world's second-largest container-leasing fleet, posted full-year profits of $26 million from selling boxes, 69 percent less than a year earlier.

Bloomberg

(HK Edition 04/08/2008 page2)