Finnish handysize bulker specialist ESL Shipping has suffered a loss-making first quarter as port strikes and impairments from ship sales hurt the bottom line.
The Baltic Sea owner said the winter had been especially harsh.
Rolf Jansson, chief executive of Helsinki-listed parent Aspo, added that domestic strikes and tough ice conditions knocked €3.5m ($3.8m) off the earnings.
ESL’s operating loss was €5m, against a profit of €6m in the same three months of 2023.
Revenue shrank to €49.9m from €52.7m.
One-off losses of €7.7m were made up largely of impairments from the planned sale of its two supramxes, the 56,300-dwt Arkadia and Kumpula (both built 2012), to HGF Denizcilik in Turkey.
Cargo volumes dipped to 3.1m tonnes from 3.3m tonnes year on year.
“Operational efficiency and carried cargo volumes during the first quarter were negatively affected by the repeated waves of political strikes stopping or limiting production at the shipping company’s main clients and closing ports for several weeks in Finland,” ESL said.
Cargoes were lost, ballast times increased and there were other effects from extended waiting, stoppages and rescheduling.
“Further negative impact was caused by the exceptionally cold January in northern Scandinavia, which caused unforeseen disruptions and stoppages in train traffic and closures of key fairways of ESL Shipping’s contractual traffic,” the owner added.
“Icebreaker assistance was intermittently halted due to severe ice conditions and certain vessels suffered hull damages caused by tugboats and icebreakers.”
The strikes are estimated to continue to weaken the profit for the second quarter by €500,000.
The owner is building a series of 12 small electric-hybrid bulkers in India with other investment partners as it renews and decarbonises its fleet.
