SITC Increases Strong Profit and Market Share Growth in Intra-Asia Market

Chinese intra-Asia specialist SITC has just announced a positive earnings forecast for the 2025 fiscal year. Accordingly, the carrier expects to achieve a full-year profit of USD 1.2 billion in its annual results, officially set for release this coming March.

The Board of Directors of the Hong Kong-listed carrier stated that profit figures could climb as high as USD 1.23 billion, representing a growth of 16% to 18.9% compared to 2024.

Explaining the drivers behind this growth in a filing to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, SITC stated: “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.”

Outperforming the Broader Market

Preliminary figures show SITC's total loaded carryings over the past year reached 3.85 million TEU, a 7.8% increase over 2024. Meanwhile, the average freight rate - including services where the carrier utilized chartered slots from other lines - rose 4.4% year-on-year, reaching USD 753/TEU.

These results indicate that SITC has gained at least a few percentage points of market share on intra-Asia trade lanes. For comparison, data from Container Trade Statistics (CTS) for the first 11 months of 2025 (full-year data is expected next week) shows intra-Asia volumes grew by only 5.6% year-on-year.

With total intra-Asia volumes recorded by CTS at 45.8 million TEU in 2024 and reaching 43.4 million TEU by the end of last November, it is estimated that SITC currently holds approximately 8% market share.

Notably, SITC's 4.4% rate increase appears to significantly outperform the market. When benchmarked against the Drewry Intra-Asia Container Index, the broader market ended the year flat and is currently 12% lower than the same time last year. This confirms that SITC’s pricing strategy and service quality are bucking the general downward trend.

Ramping Up Fleet Investment

Riding the wave of robust growth in intra-Asia cargo volumes, SITC is also actively expanding its fleet.

Recently, its vessel-owning arm, SITC Shipowning, ordered six new 2,700 TEU vessels from Huanghai Shipbuilding valued at USD 229.5 million. This order adds to four similar vessels ordered from the same yard last August. The vessels are scheduled for delivery between 2028 and 2029.

According to data from Alphaliner, SITC's current total transport capacity stands at 186,273 TEU with a fleet of 120 vessels - of which the carrier owns 100, accounting for 163,701 TEU.

Currently, SITC has 21 vessels under construction (orderbook), expected to add another 46,000 TEU to the fleet. With this scale, Alphaliner ranks SITC as the 14th largest shipping line in the world.

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Source: Phaata.com (According to The Load Star)

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