Jinhui Shipping & Transportation shareholders look set to miss out on the hot bulker market, after the company decided against paying a first-quarter dividend.
The lack of a payout comes despite the Oslo-listed shipowner reporting a juicy net profit of $5.2m, or almost $0.05 per share, on Friday.
This is the third consecutive quarter the company has been in the black, following profits of $766,000 in the third quarter of last year and $7.55m in the fourth quarter.
In contrast, US bulker rivals Star Bulk Carriers and Golden Ocean have reinstated healthy dividends on the back of the strong freight market.
Star revived the payout at $0.30 per share for the first quarter, while John Fredriksen-backed Golden Ocean restarted its dividend at $0.25 per share.
Jinhui’s revenue for the first quarter increased by 76% to $16.2m against the $9.2m achieved this time last year.
The shipowner said it benefited from the rebound of dry bulk freight rates, and the average daily time charter equivalent rates earned by its vessels increased by 92% to $10,279.
During the quarter, Jinhui agreed to acquire a 2004-built supramax for $7.2m, which was delivered in March.
Supramax acquisitions
The acquisition lifted its fleet to 19 dry bulk ships: two post-panamaxes and 17 grabs-fitted supramaxes.
The company has since agreed to acquire two more supramaxes for $9.3m and $10.8m. The first vessel will be delivered by 10 June and the second vessel by 15 August.
Last year, the company said it was holding back on fleet renewal due to a lack of clarity over fast-moving decarbonisation regulation.
Jinhui said the freight market in 2021 has been “encouraging”, driven by a general increase in demand for commodities worldwide.
“We expect strong activity in the dry bulk freight market as business confidence [continues] to recover,” it said.
“We continue to see the likelihood of strategic reserves of various energy to agriculture dry commodities to be restocked at higher volumes by many nations given the logistics bottlenecks at ports worldwide.”
However, the company said that although the outlook is positive and economic activity is expected to stabilise further in 2021, it believes the road to a full reversion to normality will “not be all smooth”.
