China Cosco warned yesterday that it expected to announce a loss for the first half of the year, highlighting the dreadful market conditions facing container shipping groups.

The Chinese state-controlled company, which is listed in Hong Kong and Shanghai, said that it expected to announce a substantial profit reduction for the first half. “Such reduction will result in a net loss attributable to the equity holders of the company for the six months ended June 30 2009,” it said.

Cosco said that both its dry bulk operations – shipping bulk commodities such as iron ore and coal – and its container shipping operations had made first-half losses. However, the losses at the group's container division, where Cosco operates the world's seventh-biggest fleet, were bigger after the dry bulk division was helped by a recovery in rates.