Jinhui Shipping and Transport has posted a net profit for the second consecutive quarter, figures released Wednesday show.
It posted net income of just under $2.5m for the last three months of 2017, a vast improvement on the impairment hit losses of $121.4m see a year earlier.
Revenue saw a 32% year-on-year increase to $21.1m, while the company managed to shave 6% off shipping related expenses to $12.1m.
However, the positive result seen in the fourth quarter was insufficient to enable the company to avoid posting a full-year loss of $4m.
“After a very tough year in 2016, the dry bulk shipping market has regained positive momentum since mid of 2017,” Jinhui said.
“The improved market conditions are driven by the accelerating seaborne activities, Chinese dry bulk demand in particular, and the slowdown of fleet growth in the market.
“Dry bulk shipping market have benefited from the improved balance between supply and demand in the second half of 2017.”
However, Jinhui said it remains cautious that the recent spike is driven by Chinese imports activities, any change in such demand would impact freight rates and the dry bulk market remains highly volatile.
“We remain positive in the longer term outlook as the supply side of dry bulk vessels would be limited, but it would take more years to prove a sustainable rebound,” it said.
“The overall recovery in dry bulk shipping market require a stronger demand and supply rebalance through slowing fleet growth, layups and scrapping.”
