China COSCO Holdings Co. Ltd., the country's largest shipper, announced on January 21 that it was recovering from heavy losses suffered in 2013.

"Although no significant changes were seen in the global shipping industry, COSCO took various measures to return to profitability," said Sun Jiakang, Vice General Manager of COSCO, after getting the results of preliminary calculations on the company's 2013 performance.

The Shanghai-listed company made cutting operational costs a major priority for 2013.

With the release of COSCO's official profit report, the firm will file an application to the Shanghai Stock Exchange for the removal of delisting risk warnings, Sun disclosed.

COSCO lost 9.56 billion yuan ($1.57 billion) in 2012 after a deficit of 10.45 billion yuan ($1.73 billion) for 2011. If the company records another loss in 2013, it risks being delisted from the stock market.