Hutchison Port Holdings Trust News

Hong Kong's Hutchison Port Holdings Trust (HPH Trust) saw its fourth-quarter earnings fall 38.4 per cent on weaker revenue and losses from associated companies. The company announced an attributable net profit of HK$237.8 million for the three months to Dec 31 last year - down from HK$385.8 million in the same period a year earlier. The Trustee-Manager remains cautiously optimistic about the expected cargo volume for 2018. Major liners have announced plans to continue to invest and build more megavessels of up to 22,000 TEU and this potential excess capacity will likely put pressure on freight rates, and as a result, keep port tariffs in check.

Hutchison Port Holdings Trust (HPHT) suffered a 69.9 percent plunge in first-quarter net profit to to HK$166.9 million ($24.4 million USD) from the corresponding period a year earlier. The Hong Kong-based port operator said it was largely due to the absence of a government rent and rates refund previously received. Excluding a one-off rent and rates refund, however, net profit would be 15.7 percent lower than that of last year, said the manager of the container port business trust in a statement. Singapore-listed HPHT said that revenue for the quarter fell 6.3 percent to HK$2.58 billion ($331.6 million USD), as throughput at some of its key terminals was hit by a decrease in transshipment cargoes.

Hong Kong Container port business trust Hutchison Port Holdings Trust (HPH Trust) has reached an agreement to purchase a majority stake in Huizhou International Container Terminals Limited (HICT) in Guangdong from the trust’s sponsor for about $86.26m. HPH Trust will acquire 65% and 15% of HITC equity interest, respectively through its subsidiaries, Yantian International Container Terminals (Phase III) Limited (YICT III) and Shenzhen Pingyan Multimodal Company Limited (PML). The company said that, upon completion of the acquisition, HICT will be jointly held by YICT III, Huizhou Port Group (HPG) and PML in the proportions of 65%, 20% and 15%.

A Hanjin Shipping Co Ltd vessel is finishing unloading in California and scheduled to leave port on Monday, shipping industry officials said, as shareholders and executives associated with the South Korean firm pledged funds to help resolve the turmoil created by its collapse. The Hanjin Greece docked in Long Beach on Saturday after a U.S. bankruptcy court granted it protection and terminal operators agreed to take it. Truck drivers probably will begin moving containers from the Greece on Monday while the vessel prepares to leave late in the day for the Port of Oakland, said Teamsters spokeswoman Barbara Maynard and shipping traffic controllers.

Moody's Investors Service says lackluster global growth, weak commodity prices, high capital expenditure commitments and a liner industry struggling with overcapacity is testing the resilience of Asian port operators. "While the rated port operators in Asia have scope for cost cuts and are generally supported by their dominant market position, their resilience is being tested by these challenging operating conditions," says Ray Tay, a Moody's Vice President and Senior Analyst. Moody's conclusions are contained in its just-released report, entitled "Rated Port Operators -- Asia: Challenges on the Rise". The port operators in the region are grappling with slowing or negative growth in cargo volumes due to China's (Aa3 negative) slowdown…

Hutchison Port Holdings Trust said on Friday it swung into loss in the last quarter of 2014 due to a HK$19 billion ($2.45 billion) impairment of goodwill, the first quarterly loss the trust has suffered since listing in 2011. The trust booked a net loss of HK$18,610.0 million for the quarter, and a full-year loss of HK$17,192 million, a statement said. The trust said an uncertain global economy, tough trading environment faced by its Hong Kong operation and labour cost pressures led to the impairment loss. Hutchison Port owns interests in container port assets in Hong Kong and Shenzhen and is backed by Hong Kong billionaire Li Ka-shing's Cheung Kong (Holdings) Ltd. Reporting by Rujun Shen

Striking dockers step up their action outside owner Li Ka-shing's office building to urge Asia's richest man to intervene. According to the South China Morning Post research has shown that the industrial action could have cost the port operator, Hutchison Port Holdings Trust, HK$100 million in revenue since the strike began. The dockers, on their 21st day off the job, moved their base from the Kwai Tsing Container Terminals after they failed to resolve their pay dispute at a recent meeting with Global and Everbest Port Services. Source: South China Morning Post

The ITF (International Transport Workers' Federation) spoke out against a temporary injunction that throws out striking dockers from Kwai Tsing Container Terminals, Port of Hong Kong. On January 30, the ITF Hong Kong Dockers Coordinating Committee comprised of Hong Kong Storehouses, Transportation and Logistics Staff Association (HKSTLSA), the Union of Hong Kong Dockers (UHKD) and the Hong Kong Docks and Ports Industry Unions (HKDPIU) called for dialogue with Hong Kong International Terminals (HIT) and its subcontractors over decent working conditions for all workers regardless of their employment status. In response to a lack of dialogue from the company and its disregard for the union's call for pay parity…

DP World has entered into two transactions to monetise its interests in two container terminals & a logistics centre in Hong Kong. The transactions will see DP World monetise 75% of its interests in CSX World Terminals Hong Kong Limited (CT3), which operates berth 3 of the Kwai Chung Container Terminal (‘CT3’) and ATL Logistics Centre Hong Kong Limited (ATL), a logistics centre located alongside CT3, and 100% of its interest in Asia Container Terminal Ltd (ACT), which operates Asia Container Terminal 8 West (CT8).