News Highlights week: 19 - 2023

Besides adding a regular call at Vladivostok (Commercial Terminal), the expanded ‘HPS1’ will also cover Chiwan in South China. 
This move follows Sinokor's and Heung A Line's recent reorganization of their East Asia – Russian Far East loops, which involves the revision of their existing China – Korea – Russian Far East ‘SRS’ service and the introduction of a fortnightly ‘SRS2’ loop that also covers the three countries. 
The extended ‘HPS1’ will become a butterfly service that centers in Busan with one loop which continues to serve South China and Northern Vietnam, while the other loop links with the Russian Far East. 

This loop will increase its turnaround time from two to three weeks to cover Busan, Ulsan, Kwangyang, Hong Kong, Haiphong, Hong Kong, Chiwan (Shenzhen), Xiamen, Busan, Vladivostok, Busan. 
The carriers will deploy three 1,000 – 1,100 teu ships, including the 1,003 teu HEUNG-A XIAMEN, the 1,091 teu YANGTZE TRADER and the current 1,118 teu SENDAI TRADER which will be the first ship on the loop to call Vladivostok on 10 June. 
Maersk flags up potential losses as profits fall to USD 2.3 bn in latest quarter
Maersk Group reported a net profit of USD 2.3 bn for the first quarter of 2023, a steep drop from USD 6.8 bn a year earlier, and said it was proactively managing costs in anticipation of flat shipping rates for the year. 
Revenues for the group’s Ocean devision reached USD 9.87 bn, a 37% drop on Q1 2022, while the division’s operating profits (EBIT) fell a hefty 72% to USD 1.97 bn, equal to a 19.9% operating margin. 

Although the group said it was performing well as the market normalized, it is maintaining full-year group EBIT forecasts of USD 2.0-5.0 bn. 
With group EBIT already reaching USD 2.3 bn in Q1 this opens up the possibility of losses later in the year. Q1 was expected to be the strongest quarter of 2023, said Maersk.
Revenues fall sharply for COSCO Group 
Revenues for the container shipping activities of COSCO Group dropped to RMB 45.7 bn in the first quarter of 2023, a decline of 56% on the same period a year earlier. 
The Shanghai-based group reported operating profits (EBIT) of RMB 9.3 bn (USD 1.3 bn) versus RMB 39.5 bn for the first three months of 2022. Net profit attributable to shareholders was RMB 7.6 bn (Q1 2022: RMB 33.1 bn). 

The fall in revenue is the sharpest announced so far by a major carrier. Liftings in the period were down 11.5% year-on-year at 5.4 Mteu, with the greatest drop seen on the Transpacific, where volumes slumped nearly 19% to under a million teu (0.98 Mteu). Average rates recorded by the group were USD 1,126 per teu for the three month period, versus USD 2,536 per teu in Q1 2022.