As energy prices continued to run at a high level in the first quarter, the growth trend of the transportation and warehousing industries slowed down in the first quarter, but the performance of the port and highway industries in the first quarter was still stable.
Statistics from the Information Data Center of this newspaper show that 58 listed companies in the transportation and warehousing industries achieved a total of 389 main business income in the first quarter.
6 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 22.16%; however, due to the substantial increase in costs, while the main operating income increased, net profit fell sharply, achieving a total net profit of 2.3 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 35.36%.
Among the 58 companies, 52 companies have made a profit, and 16 have a net profit of more than 100 million yuan; 6 companies have lost money, and 4 have a loss of more than 100 million yuan. Earnings per share, return on equity and net cash flow per share were 0.04 yuan, 1.19% and 0.14 yuan, respectively.
Serious losses in the oil industry
Affected by the increase in refined oil prices, the relevant downstream oil industry has high costs. The price transmission mechanism is not smooth, coupled with the weak digestibility of prices in some industries that are closely related to the common people, such as public transportation, which directly leads to a sharp decline in the profits of some companies.
Listed aviation companies suffered from soaring fuel prices in the first quarter. Statistics show that the total losses of domestic airlines in the first quarter of this year exceeded 2.1 billion yuan. The main reason for the huge losses was the high cost of jet fuel. Shanghai Airlines lost 140 million yuan in the first quarter, and China Southern Airlines and China Eastern Airlines lost 665 million yuan and 960 million yuan respectively. Industry insiders said that in addition to high jet fuel prices, the reasons for the huge losses of major domestic airlines in the first quarter, the relative excess capacity and high operating costs of airlines are also important reasons.
The public transportation industry, which is also a big oil user, is also generally losing money. Public transportation industries such as urban buses are mainly geared towards ordinary people. Due to their own positioning and difficulty in adjusting prices within a short period of time to transfer fuel costs to consumers, the public transportation industry generally suffers losses. G North Pakistan barely remained flat in the first quarter of last year, achieving a net profit of 640,000 yuan, and a loss of 110 million yuan in the first quarter of this year.
Bright performance in ports and highways
As the growth of the transportation industry slowed down, and the overall situation was slightly weak, the first quarter performance of the port and highway industry continued to grow rapidly.
In the first quarter, port transportation had a good start. The cargo throughput of ports above the designated size was 1 billion tons, a year-on-year increase of 15.6%. Among them, the foreign trade cargo throughput reached 350 million tons, a year-on-year increase of 10.9%. Statistics show that in the first quarter of the country’s major ports shipped 92.59 million tons of coal, a year-on-year increase of 1.7%, and the situation of coal waterway transportation was stable. The port unloaded 37.941 million tons of crude oil, of which 33.05 million tons of imported crude oil was unloaded, a year-on-year increase of 4.7%.
The first quarter is the traditional off-season for container transportation, but in the first quarter of this year, the port container throughput has maintained a growth rate of about 20%, reaching 19.34 million TEUs based on the rapid growth of the same period last year. G Yantian Port achieved a net profit of 144 million yuan in the first quarter, an increase of 24.85%; G Tianjin Port’s net profit in the first quarter was 109 million yuan, an increase of 47.2%; G Chongqing Port’s net profit in the first quarter increased by 107.65%.
Industry insiders predict that after years of rapid growth, domestic ports will gradually transition from a passionate growth stage to a stable growth stage. In recent years, the average annual growth rate of port container throughput has reached 30%, which has greatly exceeded the growth rate of GDP. In 2005, the container throughput of ports across the country increased by 24% year-on-year, and the growth rate continued to decline slightly from the 26% in 2004. The trend of steady growth in ports has become increasingly obvious.
Road transportation still occupies an important position in the domestic passenger and freight market. According to data from the National Information Center, since 2006, the volume of road cargo transportation has maintained a rapid growth trend. In the first quarter, the national road transport completed freight volume and cargo turnover were 3.29 billion tons and 220 billion ton-kilometers, respectively, an increase of 7.6% and 11.7% over the same period last year. The main reason is that the steady and rapid growth of the national economy has provided strong freight demand for transportation production. For example, in Shandong, with the operation of the Jiaodong Peninsula manufacturing base project, the development of processing trade has further accelerated, imports and exports have become more active, and road transportation has obtained a large number of sources of goods.
Benefiting from this, listed companies in the expressway industry performed very well in the first quarter, with five companies with a net profit of more than 100 million yuan: G-Guangdong Expressway, Zhongyuan Expressway, Fujian Expressway, Gan-Yue Expressway, and G-Shenzhen Expressway. The net profit of Hainan Expressway increased by 115.53% in the first quarter, the net profit of Chutian Expressway increased by 149.85%, and the net profit of Tibet Tianlu increased by 169.36%.
Throughout 2006, the continuous increase in the output of basic industrial products such as energy and raw materials has provided transportation with large quantities, long distances, and cross-regional basic sources of goods, which will become an important growth point for railway and port transportation production.
National Information Data Center predicts that in 2006, the annual freight volume of major transportation methods will exceed 18.6 billion tons, an increase of 5.4% over the expected completion in 2005; the cargo turnover will reach 8,128.5 billion ton-kilometers, an increase of 7.9% over the expected completion in 2005. The annual passenger traffic increase is also expected to reach a new high. It is expected that the annual passenger volume of the main transportation mode in 2006 will reach 19.265 billion people, and the passenger turnover will reach 1839.95 billion person-kilometers, which are respectively an increase of 4.3% and 4.8% over the expected completion in 2005.
From the statistical results, the fluctuations of road freight volume and GDP are very similar. If the macroeconomic growth rate slows down in 2006, it will bring about a certain decline in the growth rate of road freight volume. In addition, whether a fuel tax will be levied will also be an uncertain factor facing the highway industry. After the introduction of the fuel tax, whether the road traffic flow can increase depends on the game between the reduced road maintenance fee and the cost reduction brought about by the fuel-saving effect and the rising fuel price. However, under the current economic development level of our country, the stability of the expressway industry is very obvious, and it is obviously not difficult for the performance of related listed companies to maintain stable growth.
Quick Consultation Hotline0769-21684791 
