Icelandic container line Eimskip has become the latest operator to drop earnings forecasts as the coronavirus takes down western economies.
The boxship and reefer player said it had decided to withdraw its guidance for 2020 due to uncertainty created by the pandemic.
"The increasing negative impact on global economies, including in the North Atlantic region which is the company’s core market area, is likely to affect sales and profitability in coming weeks and months," the company said.
Emskip had previously expected Ebitda to be between €51m ($55m) and €58m this year.
"Considering the rapid day-to-day changes, the company is currently unable to assess the length of the period or the level of the impact," the liner operator added.
Eimskip is continuing to monitor the development of the virus and is working on various contingency planning measures to limit the effect on operations.
Takeover in doubt
"The focus has been on the safety and health of the employees and to maintain and secure the company’s logistic chain and customer services," the company said.
Eimskip has already seen a $271m takeover bid by shareholder Samherji, a fish processor, called into question by the outbreak.
Samherji was due to make an offer for Eimskip after building its stake past 30%, but it has written to Iceland's financial regulator in a bid to avoid this requirement in the current exceptional circumstances.
Companies led by AP Moller-Maersk, Nordic Shipholding and DFDS have ditched forecasting in recent days.
Eimskip said on Wednesday that operating results in the first quarter had been "somewhat mixed".
"Following a reasonable start of the year in January, the operation in February was considerably under-performing, but so far March has been in line with expectations," the company added.
The company is financially sound, with a strong equity ratio and liquidity position, it said.
In February, it posted a fourth quarter net loss of €6.4m, compared to €1.9m in the same period of 2018.
Revenue was down 1.8% to €176m.
