Taiwanese owner Yang Ming Marine Transport has seen its loss widen in the first quarter as both boxships and bulkers suffered weaker earnings.
The company said the net loss to 31 March was $27.2m, compared to $22.1m a year ago.
Revenue was down 1% at $1.15bn.
The Taipei company booked a $11m loss from subsidiaries, including its bulker business.
And it also saw boxship earnings fail to match expectations after a slow resumption of production after the Asian Lunar New Year.
The company has reduced capacity as a response to the coronavirus.
Fuel costs increased 5% and overall container volumes were down 4% to 1.24m teu.
The company said revenue had held up well under under the "pressure of imbalanced demand and supply".
But reduced revenue "could be" expected in the second quarter due to "large scale capacity withdrawal", it added.
Quiet on capital injection
TradeWinds reported on Wednesday that the board of Yang Ming has approved a plan to raise additional capital.
This will be obtained through a private placement of 300m preferred shares at a so-far undisclosed price.
Sources also said there had been a $303m capital injection to Yang Ming subsidiary All Ocean, but clarification from Yang Ming could not be obtained and the results statement contained no information on this.
The Taiwanese government owns about 48% of Yang Ming’s shares and expects it will fund the new share offering.
Taiwan Ratings Corps has maintained its BBB long-term and A-2 short-term credit ratings on Yang Ming.
The agency considers Yang Ming's link to the government will remain intact and the company will continue to benefit from "favorable borrowing costs and sufficient liquidity support from banks in Taiwan."
Liquidity and refinancing risks remain low despite the Covid-19 impact, the owner said.
It said the ministry of transportation and communications had "recognised" its efforts in the last year to "reinforce container business operation and strengthen the operating structure via implementing measures to increase profit, reduce cost, and enforce risk control."
