ONE has second quarter of ‘significantly increased’ profit.Ocean Network Express’ net profit escalates by eye-popping $939 million

Ocean Network Express’ announcement that its quarterly profit “significantly increased” could be the understatement of understatements. ONE’s third-quarter after-tax profit skyrocketed by something along the lines of 18,800% — from $5 million in 2019 to $944 million in 2020.

ONE’s fiscal year runs from April 1 to March 31. The Singapore-headquartered ocean carrier, which launched service in April 2018, has been steadily gaining steam, turning the ship around from a fiscal-year loss of $585 million in 2018 to report a fiscal-year 2019 profit of $105 million.

ONE also used the words “significantly increased” in October to report its Q2 profit had ratcheted up by a whopping 326% — from $121 million in 2019 to $515 million in 2020

The Singapore-headquartered ocean carrier, which launched service in April 2018, has been steadily gaining steam, turning the ship around from a fiscal-year loss of $585 million in 2018 to report a fiscal-year 2019 profit of $105 million.

ONE also used the words “significantly increased” in October to report its Q2 profit had ratcheted up by a whopping 326% — from $121 million in 2019 to $515 million in 2020.

ONE attributed the gigantic year-over-year Q3 gains to the “sharp recovery in cargo demand and increases in [the] short-term freight market.”

If the full-year forecast comes to bear, ONE will achieve a more than $2 billion profit increase, from $105 million in 2019 to $2.52 billion in the 2020 fiscal year.

Six ships on order

ONE did say in its Q3 materials that it was taking a number of actions to “further competitiveness and differentiation.” Those actions included signing a letter of intent for the 15-year charter of six 24,000-TEU ultra large container ships from Shoei Kisen Kaisha Ltd.

The six 24,000-TEU-plus container ships “will help bring economies of scale and significantly lower carbon emissions through a state-of-the-art hull design that aims to maximize cargo intake and minimize fuel consumption. The vessels will be equipped with exhaust gas cleaning systems to meet the emissions regulations of IMO,” ONE said in its announcement in December.

Through The Alliance, ONE said it will offer “greater capacity on trade lanes with greater cargo demand, realizing more frequency, improved transit time and a wider coverage of port pairs.” Other members of THE Alliance are Yang Ming, HMM and Hapag-Lloyd