News / Buoyant SITC increases intra-Asia market share and profits

Chinese intra-Asia shipping line SITC yesterday said it expected to post a full-year profit of $1.2bn for 2025 in its annual results, posting in March.

The board of the Hong Kong-listed carrier said that figure could rise to $1.23bn, which would represent an increase over 2024 of 16% rising to 18.9%.

“The company believes the reasons for the increase were mainly attributable to the increase in the group’s container shipping volume driven by the stable expansion of the Asian market, and the increase in freight rates due to the group’s positioning as a quality service provider,” it said in a statement to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange

It revealed that loaded carryings last year amounted to 3.85m teu, a 7.8% increase over 2024, while its average freight rate – including services on which it chartered slots from other carriers – grew 4.4% year on year, to $753 per teu.

The preliminary results also suggest SITC gained market share in the intra-Asia trades by at least a couple of percentage points – according to Container Trades Statistics (CTS) data for the first 11 months of 2025 (CTS’ full-year data for 2025 is expected to be released next week), show intra-Asia volumes grew 5.6% over the year before

Source: Container Trades Statistics

Intra-Asia volumes recorded by CTS amounted to 45.8m teu in 2024, and had reached 43.4m by the end of November last year, implying SITC holds around an 8% market share.

Meanwhile, its 4.4% increase in freight rates appeared to have slightly outperformed the market, in comparison with the performance of Drewry’s intra-Asia container index, which finished the year in much the same place, and today stands 12% lower than at the same point last year.

Source: Drewry

Meanwhile, on the back of the robust intra-Asia volumes, SITC is also building up its fleet. This month saw the carrier’s vessel-owning arm, SITC Shipowning, order six 2,700 teu ships from Huanghai Shipbuilding for $229.5m, adding to four similar vessels booked at the shipyard last August. Deliveries are expected between 2028 and 2029.

According to Alphaliner, the carrier’s total capacity is currently 186,273 teu across 120 vessels – of the fleet, it owns 100 ships, accounting for 163,701 teu.

It now has 21 ships under construction, which will add 46,000 teu to the fleet, which Alphaliner ranks as the14th-largest in the world.