Orient Overseas Container Line (OOCL) has posted another set of record results after soaring freight rates offset falling volumes. The Hong Kong carrier posted profit of $5.6bn in the first half year, twice what it earned in the same period last year. Hong Kong-listed parent Orient Overseas International Ltd (OOIL), attributed the outstanding performance to continuing extraordinary conditions. But the company, owned by China’s Cosco Group, flagged ‘conflicting signals’ which meant it could not predict what would happen in the coming months.

Revenues rose 61% to $11bn, which is to the highest half-year figure in the company’s history. The container market was “neither enjoying an extraordinary demand boom, nor suffering from any lack of vessels in deployment,” OOIL said. Instead, effective supply is under “significant downward pressure from a combination of congestion, delays and disruptions”, it added. “These market forces pushed freight rates upwards on most trade lanes,” the company said. “It is these market forces, in addition to our usual careful attention to cost control, that have driven the strong profitability that has been achieved during the period,” it added.

Looking forward, the company pointed to “an array of conflicting signals” that could influence the direction of the container market. The company noted that volumes have already started falling, down 7% to 3.63m teu in the first half. Bunker costs increased 46% in the period, even though consumption of both fuel oil and diesel oil were lower in the first half.

While the economic climate was worsening, demand remains strong in major markets, the company noted. “Ships are sailing full on main long-haul trades and are forecast to be fully loaded in coming weeks,” the company said. “But there has not been much evidence, so far, of the kind of significant seasonal uptick that is often a feature of the traditional Transpacific peak season”.

Shareholders will bank a dividend for the first half of approximately 70% interim profit attributable to shareholders of $3.96m. That amounts to $3.43 per ordinary share and a special dividend of $2.57 per ordinary share.