Algoma Central’s annual profit skyrocketed 46% as the shipowner reported asset gains and revenue surges across its tanker, bulker and self-unloader fleets.
The St Catherine, Ontario-based company posted CAD 120m ($88.4m) in net income for all of 2022, a jump from CAD 82.2m in net profit earned in 2021.
Last year’s profit included CAD 13.7m from selling a shopping centre, an impairment reversal of CAD 14.8m on 11 self-unloaders in the domestic dry bulk segment and CAD 7.81m from ship sales in the global shortsea shipping segment.
The Toronto-listed shipowner’s bottom line was also helped by higher revenue of CAD 678m across its shipping segments, which was higher than the CAD 599m reported for 2021.
The domestic dry bulk division earned CAD 360m in 2022, compared to CAD 339m during the previous year.
The product tanker segment brought in CAD 119m for 2022 against CAD 94.5m for 2021, while the ocean self-unloaders segment earned CAD 194m in revenue last year versus CAD 132m in 2021.
“We have been busy this year and our results are reflective of strong markets, steady demand and optimal utilisation of our growing vessel portfolio,” chief executive Gregg Ruhl said in a statement.
“This year, our focused diversification efforts fuelled our low carbon investments in fleet renewal, with the expansion of our product tanker fleet in Europe, replacement vessels within our Canadian fleet, and most recently, commitments for two newbuild vessels in our ocean self-unloader fleet.”
He said Algoma’s domestic bulker fleet is “nearly fully booked” for 2023 as a result of higher anticipated grain volumes from western Canada and continued demand for eastern Canada grain exports.
The shipowner also expected demand for its product tankers to be steady throughout this year, despite ongoing hostilities in Europe causing volatility in energy markets.
Algoma also forecast business for its ocean self-unloader segment to remain steady, but cargo volumes may be impacted by the closure of a quarry in Mexico and expected weakness in the US residential market.
