China Cosco Holdings has more than doubled its losses on forward freight agreement contracts since September 30 to Yuan5.38bn ($785m) after dry bulk rates sunk to record lows in the fourth quarter.
China Cosco said it had tried to lock in costs of chartered-in vessels which led it to purchase a “certain quantity” of FFA contracts in the third quarter.
“With the dramatic change in the recent market, freight rates have dropped drastically, FFA has realised floating losses,” China Cosco said.
For the first nine months of the year, China Cosco had posted a loss from the change in fair value of its FFA contracts of Yuan2.31bn.
This, however, has increased to Yuan5.38bn for the start of the year to December 12, representing an increase of Yuan3.07bn since September 30.
The Hong Kong-listed dry bulk owner said its losses would have been larger for 2008 had it not managed to mitigate the loss with a Yuan1.43 gain from its FFA portfolio.
This means that China Cosco has posted a total floating loss of Yuan3.95bn for the year so far.
In a filing to the Hong Kong bourse late Monday, China Cosco blamed the massive loss on the collapse of the dry bulk market as the global economic crisis further deteriorated.
The filing said that the Baltic Dry Index since October 1 has averaged 1,224 points, a sharp decline compared to the average value of 7,123 in the third quarter.
The BDI had fallen to 663 points on December 5, its lowest level since June 1986. The Baltic began reporting the BDI on January 4, 1985.
Meanwhile, the capesize and panamax average time charter rates have fallen in December to their lowest ever levels recorded by the Baltic.
In view of the $577m posted loss, China Cosco said that the operating environment in the fourth quarter was “very tough”.
The Chinese-based owner also noted a slowdown in demand for its container shipping business.
China Cosco said it had tried to lock in costs of chartered-in vessels which led it to purchase a “certain quantity” of FFA contracts in the third quarter.
“With the dramatic change in the recent market, freight rates have dropped drastically, FFA has realised floating losses,” China Cosco said.
For the first nine months of the year, China Cosco had posted a loss from the change in fair value of its FFA contracts of Yuan2.31bn.
This, however, has increased to Yuan5.38bn for the start of the year to December 12, representing an increase of Yuan3.07bn since September 30.
The Hong Kong-listed dry bulk owner said its losses would have been larger for 2008 had it not managed to mitigate the loss with a Yuan1.43 gain from its FFA portfolio.
This means that China Cosco has posted a total floating loss of Yuan3.95bn for the year so far.
In a filing to the Hong Kong bourse late Monday, China Cosco blamed the massive loss on the collapse of the dry bulk market as the global economic crisis further deteriorated.
The filing said that the Baltic Dry Index since October 1 has averaged 1,224 points, a sharp decline compared to the average value of 7,123 in the third quarter.
The BDI had fallen to 663 points on December 5, its lowest level since June 1986. The Baltic began reporting the BDI on January 4, 1985.
Meanwhile, the capesize and panamax average time charter rates have fallen in December to their lowest ever levels recorded by the Baltic.
In view of the $577m posted loss, China Cosco said that the operating environment in the fourth quarter was “very tough”.
The Chinese-based owner also noted a slowdown in demand for its container shipping business.