Great Eastern Shipping Q3FY13 consolidated net profit up by 119%
The Board of Directors of The Great Eastern Shipping Company Ltd. (G E Shipping) approved the Unaudited Financial Results (Provisional) for the third quarter of FY2012-13, ended 31st Dec 2012, said in a press release.
Net profit of INR1.91bn ($35.88m) compared to INR874m in the corresponding period of 2011. Revenue also rose to INR8.8bn compared to INR8.36bn a year earlier. GE Shipping said it managed to cut operating expenses to INR4.39bn during the quarter compared to INR5bn a year ago.
The GE Shipping placed an order for 1 new building Medium Range Product Tanker (about 50,000dwt) to be built at STX (Dalian) Shipbuilding Co. Ltd., China. The contract also includes the option to add more ships at a later date. The tanker is expected to join the Company’s fleet in Q4FY2015.
The tanker freight rates improved from mid November on back of strong seasonal winter demand and disruption in oil supply chain due to hurricane ‘Sandy’. Apart from this, strong demand from South America, West Africa and EU helped the product tankers to register relatively higher charter rates.
China’s crude oil imports also showed steady growth, which reflected increased infrastructure and industrial spending.
On back of improved iron ore shipments from Brazil & Australia to China, freight rates, especially for the large asset classes in the dry bulk segment, rose in the first half of Q3FY13. Also, strong minor bulk commodity demand from China supported the freight rates of smaller segments. But in the second half, a significant contraction in the iron ore movement from Brazil to Asia resulted in a sharp drop in tonne-mile demand. Overall, the relentless addition of new vessels to the existing fleet had the effect of dampening any improvement in freight rates.
The revenue visibility for the balance part of FY 2012-13 is around Rs.325 crores. PSVs and AHTSVs are covered to the extent of around 87% and 94% of their operating days respectively. ROVSVs and MPSSVs have coverage of around 100% and 62% for the balance part of FY2013. In case of Jackup rigs, they are covered to the extent of 100% of the operating days.