Shares in Samudera Shipping fell by over 8% Tuesday after the Singapore Exchange-listed company warned about weaker first-quarter profits.
The Indonesian regional liner specialist said it had recorded a “contraction in revenue and earnings” for the first quarter of 2023 versus a year ago.
The company blamed the “contraction” on a softening of freight rates and a decline in container volumes handled during the quarter compared with the same period last year.
The shipowner said the weaker figures were based on a preliminary review of the company’s financial results. However, it did not disclose any figures.
Nevertheless, Samudera said its performance in the first quarter of this year still exceeded that of the equivalent quarter in 2021.
Samudera is only required to announce its financial results for the half and full year under recent changes in disclosure rules by the SGX.
However, the Bani Maulana Mulia-led shipowner said the profit guidance was being issued “in the spirit of good corporate governance and transparency”.
Samudera is just the latest in a series of liner companies to warn that the lucrative period enjoyed during the Covid-19 outbreak may be coming to an end.
Japan’s Mitsui OSK Lines recently disclosed that it expected its full-year net profit for 2023 to be down nearly 75%.
Samudera announced a bumper profit for shareholders in late February 2023 after reporting a 150% jump in 2022 full-year net profit to $323.1m.
Samudera declared a special one-tier tax-exempt cash dividend of SGD 0.2425 per share in view of the “outstanding results and performance of the group” for 2022.
The shipowner’s owned fleet includes 27 container ships, four chemical tankers and a single gas carrier.
Samudera will be taking delivery of four container ship newbuildings, on long-term charters, in the first half of 2023 as part of its effort to rejuvenate its fleet.
It has also entered into an agreement to purchase two 1,900-teu container vessel newbuildings for $66m, which are due to be delivered between late 2024 and early 2025.
