First, the production and operation had made steady progress. In response to the Belt and Road Initiative, COSCO SHIPPING had been enhancing production and operation management and further optimized the structure of its businesses, fleets and cargo source. By taking multiple measures, it had witnessed a steady growth in both production and operation. During the first four months, the Group’s shipping volume registered a year-on-year increase of 9.8%, terminal throughput of 12.2%, and project logistics volume of 8.7%. Second, the revenue and profit had been growing. During this period, the Group’s operating revenue and profit had maintained a double-digit growth. The shipping business, in particular, had been generally profitable with a sound momentum of improvement. Third, the structure of assets and liabilities had been roughly balanced. By the end of April, the asset-liability ratio had a decline of 1.37 percentage points as compared with that at the start of this year.
Next, making full use of the opportunities brought by the Belt and Road Initiative, COSCO SHIPPING will prioritize the development of its key industrial clusters, such as shipping, ports, logistics and finance to accomplish its strategic goals. It will carry on with a deeper reform that is centered on quality and efficiency improvement and advance business restructuring for the continuous release of reform dividends and stronger international competitiveness. Meanwhile, it will take a range of measures to innovate its business models, make greater efforts in market development, marketing, and cost control, quicken its pace of overseas expansion, and improve its overall ability in value creation for customers. By doing so, we can build a quality, reliable and efficient integrated service network of global supply chain for our customers. Relying on our excellent capability in global resources allocation, remarkable influence on the world stage and ever-growing international competitiveness, we will join hands with our clients, partners and other port and shipping players in an effort to achieve common development.