On January 26, 2024, the first day of the Spring Festival in the Year of the Dragon, the flow of people and vehicles crossing the Qiongzhou Strait increased significantly.
Just a few days ago, a document on the ticket price of a new energy vehicle crossing the island in the Qiongzhou Strait was hotly circulated on the Internet.
The document said: the ticket price of the new energy car ferry crossing the island will be raised from 372 yuan to 572 yuan, a one-time increase of 200 yuan.
The Spring Festival is approaching, this price increase notice soon caused an uproar of public opinion on the island, under the strong pressure from all walks of life, the notice was finally withdrawn, and the price increase of new energy vehicles out of the island failed.
The Qiongzhou Strait Ferry Shipping Company that issued this price increase notice is a subsidiary of Hainan Strait Shipping Co., Ltd. *** hereinafter referred to as "Strait Shipping"), why did it announce a price increase on the eve of the Spring Festival? Could it be that the Qiongzhou Strait ferry business has been losing money for a long time and is not profitable? Or is it because the cost of operating during the holidays is too high to make ends meet?
In fact, many people may not know that the "Straits Shipping" company is actually a very profitable listed company!
Not only in the domestic shipping industry, the unit economic benefits are outstanding, but also in the forefront of profitability among Hainan listed companies!
On the evening of January 26, "Strait Shares" (002320), which bears more than eighty percent of the passenger and freight capacity of the Qiongzhou Strait, released its 2023 annual performance forecast, and the net profit attributable to the parent company in 2023 is expected to be 38.4 billion yuan - 49.9 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 15266%—228.16%！
Please note that the company's net profit attributable to the parent company has doubled, and such a performance growth should be said to be rare in today's Chinese capital market!
As we all know, for a long time, the problem of slow and urgent sea crossing in the Qiongzhou Strait has seriously restricted Hainan's economic and social development, making the people crossing the sea unspeakably miserable.
In the past Spring Festival this year, the crisis of crossing the sea and outlying islands in the Qiongzhou Strait once again "repeated" and broke out in a concentrated manner, shaking the island and beyond!
Why does Hainan have the problem of not being smooth every year? As early as 2018, the reporter of the "Economic Information Daily" found the crux of this problem when he investigated in Hainan, Guangdong and other places: the top-level design overtakes the interests of enterprises, the backward management mode of port and shipping enterprises, and the single mode of shipping crossing the sea are the root causes of the long-term poor passage of the Qiongzhou Strait!
The specific manifestation of the poor sea crossing is "difficult to cross the sea, tired to cross the sea, and expensive to cross the sea".
During the holidays, the problem of "crossing the sea, crossing the shipwreck" is very prominent, and people feel it deeply, which to some extent covers up the "expensive sea", in fact, the problem of "crossing the sea" cannot be ignored!
It is precisely because of the long-term "high sea" that the profits of related monopolies continue to hit new highs!
Obviously, as the largest player in the Qiongzhou Strait ferry transportation market, the "Strait Shipping" company is undoubtedly the biggest winner.
At present, in addition to the Guangdong Railway Ferry, there is about 10 shares, the "Strait Shipping" company has basically monopolized the people, goods and vehicles transportation business of the ferry from Xinhai Port to Xuwen Port and Xiuying Port to Hai'an Port.
According to the company's 2023 interim financial report data, Haian Route (i.e., Qiongzhou Strait Ferry) accounts for 86% of Strait's revenue, which also means that Strait's revenue mainly comes from Qiongzhou Strait Ferry.
Hainan Strait Shipping Co., Ltd. was established on December 6, 2002, and was first initiated by five shareholders including Haikou Port and Shipping Holdings, Shenzhen Yantian Port Co., Ltd., and Shenzhen Yantian Port Co., Ltd.
On December 16, 2009, the company was listed on the Shenzhen Exchange with a total share capital of 42.6 billion shares, Haikou Port & Shipping Holdings*** is the controlling shareholder of the company.
Before October 2018, "Strait Shipping" was originally a listed company in Haikou City, and then it was transferred to the Hainan Provincial State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission free of charge.
On May 15, 2019, "Strait Shipping" announced on the evening that the Hainan Provincial State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (SASAC) intends to transfer 45% of the equity of Hainan Port and Shipping Holdings, the controlling shareholder of the company, to a wholly-owned subsidiary of COSCO Shipping free of charge.
Through the annual report, it is not difficult to find that in the past 15 years of listing, as the biggest beneficiary of the Qiongzhou Strait ferry transportation market, the life of the "Strait Shipping" company is still very good, the following is the company's financial reports in the past 5 years and related to the same industry and the same region of the listed companies comparative analysis, there are the following points worthy of public attention:
1. The performance of "Strait Shipping" has been good, and the development has been relatively stable and upward in the five years from 2017 to 2021, with annual revenue basically exceeding 100000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000009.9 billion, the lowest was 97.8 billion.
Although it seems that the growth of the annual revenue indicator is not very obvious, in the past 5 years (including 3 years of the epidemic), the company's profitability is still very good, in these 5 years, the average gross profit margin of "Straits Shipping" is 3927, with an average net profit margin of 2356, which is much higher than the average level of listed companies in the same industry and region.
2. Since the beginning of 2022, the revenue and profitability of "Strait Shipping" have grown explosively, of which the revenue in 2022 will be 296.3 billion, up 111. from 202179, gross profit 120.2 billion, up 11.4 billion from 202148％。
In the first three quarters of 2023, the company's main business continued to show a strong growth trend, with revenue of 301.5 billion, which has exceeded 29 for the whole of 20226.3 billion; Gross profit was 150.8 billion, also more than 120.2 billion; In particular, the non-net profit with the highest gold content has reached 367.6 billion, up 16832％。
According to the third quarter report of 2023, the company's gross profit margin and net profit margin hit a record of 4999 and 3217 all-time high, it is expected that after the official release of the 2023 annual report in March this year, the company's financial indicators may be even more beautiful!
3. "Strait Shipping" has become one of the most profitable listed companies in Hainan.
According to the comparison of the 3rd quarter report of 2023, the profitability of "Strait Shipping" has surpassed most listed companies in Hainan, in addition to being inferior to Haide shares, which is a financial company, including profiteering industries in the eyes of the public, such as the pharmaceutical industry, taking Hainan "Huluwa Pharmaceutical" as an example, although the company's gross profit margin is still 5157, which seems to be higher than that of Straits Shipping, but the net profit margin is only 648, significantly lower than strait shipping;
For another example, the duty-free industry, which also has monopoly characteristics, takes the leading China Duty Free as an example, the company's gross profit margin and net profit margin in the current period have dropped from a peak of more than 50 in the previous few years to 31 in the third quarter of 202375 and 1067 , these two financial indicators have obviously fallen short of today's "strait shipping".
4. Compared with the same industry, even within the COSCO Group system, the current profitability of "Straits Shipping" is second to none.
Although, in terms of size and history, within COSCO Group, "Strait Shipping" can only be regarded as a "little brother" and "recruit", but in some financial indicators, "Strait Shipping" is not inferior at all, and even the latecomer is superior.
Also according to the third quarter report of 2023, COSCO Shipping Holdings (601919), the flagship listed company of COSCO, has a total revenue of 134.6 billion yuan in the first three quarters of 2023 and a total gross profit of 255800 million, from the volume point of view, is undoubtedly crushing the "strait shipping", but its gross profit margin is 1901, net profit margin 1932, these two financial data are still inferior to "strait shipping".
Similarly, as a high-quality listed shipping company of COSCO, "COSCO SHIPPING Development" (601866), although the total revenue and profit are much higher than that of "Strait Shipping", there is still a considerable gap between it and "Strait Shipping" in the two indicators of gross profit margin and net profit margin.
In addition, compared with some old domestic shipping companies such as Phoenix Shipping (000520) and Ningbo Shipping (600798), although "Strait Shipping" has fewer ships and fewer routes and short distances, it has obvious advantages in terms of unit profitability.
Of course, the most comparable of these is the "Bohai Ferry" company (603167).
The company is also mainly engaged in the inter-city passenger and cargo ro-ro transportation in the inland sea, and once ranked first among similar enterprises in the country in terms of market share, operating income, realized profits, and taxes paid, and is known as the largest and strongest passenger ro-ro transportation enterprise in Asia.
The company is mainly engaged in Yantai to Dalian, Penglai to Lushun and Longkou to Lushun and other 3 ** routes.
However, according to the third quarter report of 2023, various financial indicators have been completely inferior to "Strait Shipping", and its revenue in the first three quarters of 2023 was 13700 million, gross profit 373.9 billion, net profit after deducting non-profit of 181.7 billion.
Gross profit margin and net profit were 27., respectively29 and 1785, which is about 10 points lower than the shipping of the strait.
It seems that China's real "** ferry transport route is not in the Bohai Sea, but in the Qiongzhou Strait!"
5. Why is the profit margin of the "Straits Shipping" company so high?
For a long time, in addition to complaining about "crossing the sea" and "crossing the sea tired", the complaints about "crossing the sea expensive" have not stopped, but the voice is a little weak, especially some institutions that want to invest in the manufacturing industry in Hainan have inspected the logistics cost in Hainan, especially the cost of crossing the sea, they feel a bit high, so they have to give up investment.
For example, someone has calculated that the ** fare from Tianjin to Dalian is calculated to be 9 cents per nautical mile, while Haikou to Xuwen Port is less than 20 nautical miles, and a nautical mile is almost 2$5.
The distance from Tianjin Port to Dalian, Liaoning Province is 216 nautical miles, and the general ticket is about 200 yuan.
The small family car charges 419 yuan per car, and the accompanying person is 42 yuan per person.
If individual ferry tickets are not cheap, then is it expensive to cross the sea by car? This is also calculated: the Qiongzhou Strait ferry voyage is 12 nautical miles, and the car ticket price is 372 yuan (before the price increase), 31 yuan per nautical mile;
Bohai Ferry (Dalian Yantai) voyage 89 nautical miles, car ticket price 600 yuan, 6 nautical miles per nautical mile74 yuan.
Regarding the transportation of cross-sea bulk cargo, including melons, fruits and vegetables, there are also many complaints on the Internet.
In short, the above data and algorithms are not necessarily very accurate, including the bulk cargo of the sea ** is also often changing, it is even more difficult to say, and the "Strait Shipping" company may also think that the existing ** is low, and the price has not been raised for many years.
Therefore, is the cost of crossing the Qiongzhou Strait high? This requires a more professional and authoritative third-party evaluation agency to investigate and compare, but one thing is true, that is, the profit margin of the "Strait Shipping" company is indeed not low.
Moreover, there is also an economic law that is also true, that is, under the conditions of market economy, open and full and fair competition will generally make certain goods and services go to high quality and low price, and vice versa, quality and low price!
Marx also said that in a closed monopoly market environment, the relevant monopoly subjects can obtain excess profits.
As early as 6 years ago, there was a ** Jiji after on-the-spot interviews and came to the conclusion that the closed market environment allowed the shipping companies in the Qiongzhou Strait to get huge profits.
At that time, some industry insiders told reporters, "Investment."
Three or five years to return to the capital, after which you can lie down and make money" is the business status of shipping enterprises in the Qiongzhou Strait.
On the one hand, the shipping market in the Qiongzhou Strait is closed, and shipping companies have made "a lot of money"; On the other hand, because of the weakening of the competition mechanism, low costs can bring considerable profits, many enterprises lack the motivation to improve efficiency and service quality, and public interests and social benefits cannot be guaranteed.
Of course, as a listed public company, its basic operating logic is still based on the market. Capital, the market, and monopoly are not entirely incompatible, and according to the needs, sometimes it is necessary to emphasize the responsibility of state-owned enterprises, and sometimes it is necessary to take money according to market rules. It's really a cool mode at the moment.
Therefore, we see that although "Strait Shipping" is suspected of administrative and monopoly in business, it is also very "market-oriented" in some aspects, such as executive remuneration, according to the company's annual report, in recent years, perhaps due to outstanding performance, the annual salary of the company's executives has actively moved closer to the "market-oriented salary" standard, and has exceeded one million, even exceeding the executive salary level of COSCO Shipping, a listed central enterprise controlled by it, such as the current general manager's salary from 25 in 2019450,000 to 149 in 2022580,000, an increase of more than 5 times in 3 years, and the annual salary of the current secretary of the board of directors will be 13 in 2020370,000 rose to 119 in 2022730,000, a faster and greater increase.
Slimmed Qiongzhou and fattened the strait".
Although Hainan is an island, it is not a big shipping province, but it has "given birth" to one of the most profitable offshore shipping companies in the country, and a listed company with the best benefits in the province. Is Hainan's development fortunate or unfortunate? I believe that everyone has their own judgment!
With the closure of customs at the end of 2025 approaching, whether the passage of the Qiongzhou Strait is smooth or not is indeed a "throat" pain related to the free trade port, and we can no longer let the situation of "slimming Qiongzhou, but fattening the strait" continue! (Chat at the end of the world).