July 28 -- China Shipping Container Lines (CSCL) (601866, 2866.HK) said it may have suffered a loss in the first half, reports China Business News, citing a company filing. The company did not give detailed numbers.

The container shipping company had recorded net profit of 1.09 billion yuan after the deduction of non-recurring gains and losses in the first half of last year.

The company is scheduled to release its first half report on August 25.

CSCL said the international container shipping market was sluggish in the first half due to the impact of the sluggish world economy, the debt crisis in Europe, Japan’s earthquake, additional shipping capacity, and higher fuel cost.

China's export container freight index (CCFI) was down 0.8 percent to 976 last week. Ship space utilization rate was about 90 percent and shipping prices are declining due to overcapacity and discounts offered by carriers.

Goldman Sachs downgraded estimates on global container capacity growth for 2011-12 by 1.2 percent to 9.5-10.3 percent because of reduced demand for containers.

Source:CapitalVue