Cosco Shipping Holdings Co. shares were higher in morning trade after the shipping company unveiled new leadership and plans to buy back shares.
The company’s Hong Kong-listed stock 1919, +2.58% rose as high as 8.7% before trimming gains to a 4.3% rise to HK$14.58 in mid-morning trade. Shares have now more than doubled from a year earlier during elevated shipping rates worldwide.
The Tianjin, China-based company said late Monday that its board had approved plans to buy back up to 10% of H-shares and A-shares in circulation.
It separately said that its chairman and executive director, Xu Lirong, had resigned, to be replaced in both positions by Wan Min, who currently serves as the board chairman of China Cosco Shipping Corp.
Wan Min on Monday was also appointed chairman and executive director of Orient Overseas (International) Ltd., a subsidiary of Cosco Shipping.
Shares of shipping companies may also be getting a boost from another increase in container freight rates. Bocom International said in a research note Tuesday that global container freight rates hit new 2021 highs in the latest week, with Shanghai, European, Transpacific and U.S. West Coast rates all rising on week.
The research group said that the total number of vessels waiting in the open ocean along U.S.-based ports “has not fallen meaningfully, which points to still-elevated demand from Asia to the U.S., in our view.”
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