Seatrade-Maritime: OOCL transpacific volumes rebound in second quarter

Published by Seatrade-Maritime

Orient Overseas Container Line’s (OOCL) liftings on transpacific routes were 608,979 teu, up 21.5% in the second quarter of 2026, compared to the year-ago period, according to its latest operational update.

The increase on the transpacific routes reverses a 5.9% decline on-year in the first quarter of 2026, giving an overall increase for the first half of 2026 of 7.1% on-year to 1.13m teu.

In its Annual Report, Hong Kong-listed OOCL said the primary reasons for a drop in revenue on the transpacific services in 2025 were exceptionally intense market competition, and the impact of sharp, frequent changes in tariff measures throughout the year causing demand volatility and lower US imports.

The tariff situation has been more stable in 2026, so far.

Across all of its routes, OOCL’s liftings were up by 5.2% in the first quarter 2026 to 1.94m teu. Weakest gains were recorded in the transatlantic, where first half volumes were stable, ending up by 0.3% to 284,377 teu.

OOCL reported a similar increase in its first half revenue across all services, up 5.5% to $4.68bn. The transatlantic was the only route to see revenues fall for the first half of the year, down 2.7% to $354.5m.

Quarterly revenues rose more aggressively in the second quarter, up by 19.8% overall to $2.54bn. By route, revenues were up 29.3% for the transpacific, 17.6% for Asia-Europe, and 16.8% for intra-Asia/Australasia, while transatlantic revenues were down 1.3%.

OOCL said the loadable capacity across its service rose by 6.3% during the second quarter, and that average liner revenue per teu was up by 10.1% compared to the same period last year.

Overall average liner revenue per teu increased by 0.2% in the first half, compared to the same period last year, said OOCL.