COSCO Shipping Ports Handles 80.16m TEU as Overseas Volume Rises 18%
Revenue grew 12.3% to $905m across a network of 40 ports and 394 berths
COSCO Shipping Ports reported first-half 2026 throughput of 80.16m TEU, up 7.9% year on year, with revenue growing 12.3% to $905m and EBITDA climbing 20.6% to $536m. The board declared an interim dividend of 2.360 US cents per share.
The operator runs 40 ports and 394 berths worldwide, spanning China's major coastal clusters and international markets in Europe, the Middle East and Southeast Asia. Container throughput grew across both domestic and international terminals in the half, with overseas throughput rising 18.0%.
In China, controlled terminals recorded $415m in revenue, up 16.4%. Guangzhou Nansha Terminal saw 14.7% growth on increasing Southeast Asian trade, while Tianjin Container Terminal delivered a 19.4% revenue increase from rate rises and storage income. Overseas controlled terminals generated $490m, a 9.1% increase, with notable performances from the PCT terminal in Greece, up 7.1%, and the Spanish facility, up 11.7%, both driven by economies of scale.
Executive director Wu Yu and other company leaders framed the half as a period of focus on the core hub network and on supply chain resilience in a shifting global trade environment. That framing is doing real work: a terminal network is one of the few positions in shipping that gains value when routings change, because the boxes still have to be lifted somewhere even when they stop being lifted where they were.
Automation accounted for part of the throughput growth. Seven terminals now run intelligent transport systems, driving a 25% year-on-year increase in what the company describes as smart throughput, while its PORT MATRIX platform is being used to streamline operations. On the environmental side the group cited clean energy adoption, increased shore power consumption and a rise in new-energy container trucks.
The forward focus is on the group's larger hubs, naming PCT in Greece, Abu Dhabi and Chancay in Peru. Chancay in particular is the network's newest strategic asset, a deepwater gateway on the Pacific coast of South America built to shorten the trans-Pacific leg for Chinese trade with the region.
The results land while the parent group defends itself against allegations about equipment carried aboard its ships, covered in the intelligence collection dispute. For the ports business the relevant risk is different but adjacent: terminal concessions are the assets most exposed to a political turn against Chinese ownership of infrastructure, and the group's port of call footprint in Europe is the part of the network with the least protection from it.
