COSCO Shipping Holdings Ltd. announced that recent geopolitical tensions in the Middle East have had only a limited impact on its overall revenue. The Company currently has no plans to resume direct transits through the Strait of Hormuz.
The statement was made during the Company’s 2025 Annual Results Briefing in response to investor inquiries regarding the potential implications of regional instability on freight rates and earnings projections for 2026, as well as the status of contingency measures.
COSCO Shipping Holdings Ltd clarified that Middle East–bound routes represent a relatively small share of the Company’s global network. As such, both operational disruptions and financial exposure remain contained: revenue generated from these routes constitutes only a minor portion of the Group’s consolidated earnings.
While market demand is showing signs of gradual recovery, persistent geopolitical uncertainties in the region continue to warrant flexibility in commercial planning. Consequently, the Company may adjust booking policies and vessel deployment schedules as required.
On 4 March 2026, COSCO Shipping issued a customer advisory suspending new bookings for Middle East–related services. Subsequently, on 25 March, it resumed container bookings from the Far East to key Gulf destinations—including the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait, Iraq, and Oman—via alternative multimodal transport solutions.
Notably, two COSCO-operated container vessels—the CSCL Indian Ocean and CSCL Arctic Ocean—successfully transited the Strait of Hormuz on 30 March 2026 after repositioning following an earlier aborted attempt.
As of end-2025, COSCO Shipping Holdings Ltd. operated a global network comprising 308 international routes, 62 domestic coastal routes in China, and 85 feeder routes across the Pearl River Delta and Yangtze River regions—serving approximately 654 ports in around 146 countries and territories worldwide.
The Company’s owned container fleet totaled 590 vessels, with a combined capacity of approximately 3.6 million TEUs.
Resource.: https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/4tpDneY8A_j-iUXAbNiBAg