Qinhuangdao Port Co., Ltd, China's largest port operator for dry bulk cargoes, witnessed a 24.99% year-on-year decline in net profit to 549 million yuan ($76.6 million) during the first half, the company said in a semi-annual report recently.
Its operating income was down by 3.44% year on year to 3.39 billion yuan, it said.
QHD Port attributed the drop to soft thermal coal demand from southern utilities and competition from neighboring ports.
Coal throughput came in at 119.52 million tonnes during January-June, down 2.31% from 122.35 million tonnes in the preceding year, said the company.
The firm handled a total 189.89 million tonnes of cargoes in the first six months, reducing 0.8% from a year ago.
Specifically, cargo throughput at Qinhuangdao port declined remarkably by 8.14% from the year-ago level to 107.88 million tonnes during the first half, as some coal cargoes were diverted to other ports while iron ore shipments slumped due to closure of ore terminals.
Caofeidian port handled 50.09 million tonnes of cargoes, increasing 16.03% from a year earlier, primarily thanks to its expansion of coal business and increase of iron ore demand in hinterland.
Cargo throughput at Huanghua port stood at 31.92 million tonnes, a year-on-year increase of 3.57%.
QHD Port also disclosed some major obstacles facing the company, including continuous fall of domestic coal transporting demand due to development of clean energy and UHV transmission capacity, competition with China Huadian Caofeidian port, and Haoji Railway (formerly Menghua Railway) that connects northern coal bases directly to southern and eastern downstream users and will start operation in October.
Source:sxcoal
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