Singapore's Neptune Orient Lines, the world's sixth-biggest container shipping line, carried 10 percent more cargo on its ships in August than a year earlier, it said on Monday, helped by a boom in global trade.
Neptune Orient Lines Ltd (NOL) said in a statement its container shipping arm APL transported 154,200 40-foot equivalent units (FEUs) - a standard industry measure corresponding to one 40-foot container - between July 30 and August 26.
Average revenue per container rose 3 percent to $2,924 in the same period compared with a year ago.
Supported by China's export boom and a tight supply of ships world-wide, prices for container shipments have risen, benefiting state-controlled NOL - Singapore's biggest shipping firm - and others such Taiwan's Evergreen Marine and Denmark's Maersk Sealand.
But investors have been increasingly cautious about shipping stocks amid recent talk of a peak in the cycle as freight rates for dry bulk shippers have fallen, but NOL said its volumes "reflect continued demand growth" in the container business.
In the year to date, NOL's ships have carried some 1.26 million containers, a rise of 13 percent from last year, while revenues per box rose 6 percent on average to $2,811.
NOL said revenues in its logistics business, which it has identified as a growth business to lessen its dependence on economic cycles in shipping, rose 4 percent to $64.2 million in contract logistics and 21 percent to $37.4 million in international services.
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