Cosco International Holdings predicts a recovery in its ship trading business this year.
The company saw a 20 per cent drop in the tonnage of ship transactions last year, which vice-chairman Liu Guoyuan put down to the time lag between a ship being ordered, built and delivered.
'The process normally takes two to four years. Many shipping lines have been making a lot of big orders since 2004, so we can expect more deliveries this year,' he said.
Although the firm saw a 126.5 per cent rise in net profit to $496.46 million last year, $287 million came from the sale of eight floors of Cosco Tower in Sheung Wan.
Overall sales fell to $1.51 billion, down 10.5 per cent from 2004. The core businesses of ship trading and supplying services accounted for 89 per cent of sales but only contributed 24 per cent to operating profit.
High oil prices hit manufacturing and sales of Cosco's paint business. Operating profit plunged 48 per cent while the profit margin fell six percentage points.