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COSCO Shipping Ports (CSP) reported a 28.5% rise in attributable profit to US$233.7m for the first half of 2026, yet the increase rests on a one-off US$53.7m provision reversal rather than stronger trading. Stripped of that accounting item, underlying terminal profit fell 3.1%, even as throughput climbed 7.9% to 80.2m teu.
The result was one of three half-year filings released within 24 hours by COSCO's listed companies, each carrying a headline number that tells only part of the story.
Orient Overseas (International) Limited (OOIL), the group's liner arm, filed on Thursday, August 27. It posted a 23.7% drop in profit attributable to shareholders, to US$728.0m, on revenue up 6.1% to US$5.17bn.
The headline points down. The quarterly detail points up. OOIL's own second-quarter figures show the first-half decline was concentrated in the first three months and had reversed by June, leaving the carrier on a firmer run rate heading into the second half.
The parent, COSCO Shipping Holdings, filed the same evening. Attributable profit dropped 23.6% to RMB13.39bn (US$1.99bn).
In a separate announcement, the company confirmed an order for twelve 22,000 teu LNG dual-fuel vessels at Waigaoqiao Shipbuilding, valued at US$2.69bn. The order marks the largest tonnage commitment COSCO has made this year, placed against an improving second-half trajectory rather than the softer six-month result.
Neither subsidiary headline describes the half that produced it. CSP's gain is a single accounting line, a provision reversal layered over a terminal business whose operating profit slipped. OOIL's fall is a first-quarter comparison that its second-quarter performance had already overturned.
Read together, three signals emerge. The group's terminal operations are effectively flat once the one-off is removed. The liner business entered the second half on a stronger run-rate than the aggregate figure suggests. And the parent has committed its largest vessel order of the year to match that momentum.
For cargo owners weighing carrier stability and long-term capacity, the pattern matters more than the headlines. A liner network entering the second half on firmer footing, backed by fresh dual-fuel tonnage, points to sustained service reliability and expanded capacity across COSCO's global lanes.
https://www.shippingazette.com/news/9260900000002
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