Anticipating vast opportunities in the booming Asian trade, Orient Overseas (International) Ltd (OOIL) may lend more of its carrying capacity to the region this year.
'The intra-Asia trade is rapidly becoming the largest container trade in the world, a very interesting fact which reveals a lot about what has happened in Asia in recent years,' Harry Wilkinson, OOIL chief financial officer and director, said.
Stanley Shen, OOIL corporate affairs general manager, said: 'Although the group's capacity is now pretty set, we may increase loading for the intra-Asia trade. We foresee great opportunities in the region's booming trade.' OOIL is the parent of Orient Overseas Container Line (OOCL), one of the world's largest container transport firms.
On top of this, the group has progressively expanded its investments in China.
A total of US$87.1 million had now been ploughed into various business interests, which included real-estate projects, on the mainland, K.M. Fung, OOIL group financial controller, said.
OOIL expects to increase the number of teus that it carries by 10 per cent this year.