Samudera Shipping has seen its first-half profit jump five-fold compared with a year ago on the back of the red-hot containership market.
Net profit for the six months to 30 June 2021 was $36.7m versus the $7.2m achieved 12 months earlier. Earnings per share worked out to 6.83 US cents, up from 1.33 US cents.
The Singapore-listed intra-Asian operator attributed the improvement to a combination of higher freight rates and significant cost-management measures.
Samudera saw first-half revenue increase 19.6% to $209.1m as container shipping revenue jumped 20.8% to $200.9m.
The step increase in revenue came despite volumes only rising by 8.1% year-on-year to 715,000 teu, as the global port congestion situation arising from pandemic-related disruptions resulted in a shortage of capacity.
Samudera’s bulker and tanker shipping segment saw revenue slide 10.8% to $3.1m due to a combination of fewer employment days and lower charter-hire rates for its chemical tankers.
“The global port congestion situation arising from pandemic control efforts by governments around the world has greatly disrupted container shipping services,” Samudera said.
“The severity and scale of the congestion have led to a shortage of vessel and container capacity in some ports amid strong demand for shipping services. The resulting upward pressure on freight rates is thus expected to continue in the near term.”
Samudera said it has fixed a total of nine vessels on long-term charters to ensure the availability of capacity in the next 12 months.
The shipowner added that seven of the ships have joined the fleet, with the remaining two expected to be delivered in the fourth quarter of 2022.
It has also been taking advantage of the strong secondhand market to dispose of a number of older vessels as part of its fleet renewal.
At the beginning of July, it confirmed the sale of the 1,118-teu Sinar Bima (built 2008) to an unnamed third party for $12.5m.
In April, Samudera also confirmed the sale of the 1,740-teu Sinar Sabang and Sinar Sumba (both built 2008) to two German KG (limited partnership) companies, which TradeWinds has reported are linked to German owner Leonhardt & Blumberg.
It also sold the 287-teu Sinar Ambon (built 2005) to PT Panurjwan of Indonesia for $709,000.
