Indonesian carrier Samudera Shipping Line saw profits dive 61.5% in the first half of the year.
Net profits for the first six months dropped to $66.2m, down from $172.3m in the same period last year.
This was mostly due to a drop in revenues from its container shipping segment which dragged group earnings down by 35% to $305m.
Average freight rates fell sharply and container volume dropped by 50,000 teu to 907,000 teu.
The company, led by chief executive Bani Maulana Mulia, believes the outlook for container freight activity and rates to remain “subdued”.
“The ongoing normalisation of consumer behaviour and inventory stocking to pre-pandemic levels is expected to weigh down on demand for container shipping services,” the company said.
“Meanwhile more capacity continues to come on stream amid delivery of newbuilds and resolved port congestion.”
Samudera is renewing its container fleet and took delivery on 5 July of the 1,528-teu Sinar Bajo (built 2023).
The vessel is the first of two sister vessels it purchased in June for a total of $59.9m from Greece’s Cosmoship Management.
The vessels are being delivered from Guangzhou Wenchong Shipyard and are among the latest of a series of modern container ships being taken on by the Indonesian carrier.
In January, the company purchased two 1,900-teu container vessel newbuildings for delivery in the third quarter of 2024 and the first half of 2025.
The company paid a total of $66m for the two feedermaxes under construction at Naikai Shipbuilding in Japan.
Those vessels are understood to be sisterships to three vessels that the shipowner has on long-term charters from Japanese owners.
The company also has a fourth in the series for delivery in January 2024, which it has chartered from Japan’s Osaka Asahi Kaiun.
Samudera owns and operates about a dozen boxships all below 2,000 teu.
