HONG Kong-listed Orient Overseas International (OOIL), parent of OOCL, has reported a profit attributable to equity holders of US$1.13 billion for the first half of 2023 compared to $5.75 billion in the same period last year.

Revenues in the first half of the year more than halved to $4.54 billion for the first six months of 2023 compared to $11.06 billion in the same period in 2022 as revenues per TEU fell by 60 per cent year on year, reports UK's Seatrade Maritime News.

OOIL said in a statement: "As was clearly to be expected, the extraordinary market conditions of the past two to three years came to an end. The long, steady decline in freight rates, which began around the middle of last year, continued during the first half of 2023."

OOCL saw its container liftings drop by one per cent in the first half of 2023 while loadable capacity to 4.42 million TEU up from 4.22 million TEU a year earlier. In the first half of 2023 OOCL took in the first two in a series of 24,188 TEU newbuildings.

Looking ahead the company said that while there had been more positive sentiment in recent weeks, especially on the US West Coast, challenges remained ahead with conflicting signals continuing to make market forecasting difficult.

While there are challenges OOIL stated: "Certainly, the market is very far from being in disaster territory, and of course there are some indications that demand is improving and that shipping companies are behaving rationally in the face of fluctuating demand - all of this is reassuring."

There were however risks associated with the impact of inflation and higher interest rates on consumer spending, and the overall economic outlook.

Net fleet growth for container shipping also remains uncertain as while there is a large orderbook being delivered over the next two years the impact scrapping, speed reductions, and environmental regulations such CII and EEXI remains uncertain.

Despite these positive factors OOIL said a "cautious outlook" remained.