Cost cutting has helped Sinotrans Shipping to post a significant improvement in its bottom line for the first half of 2018.
The Hong Kong-listed shipowner posted a net profit of $40.3m a more than four-fold increase on the $7.6m achieved a year ago.
Revenue was largely unchanged from a year ago at $497m, but the company was able to show a reduction in costs of over 6% to $449m.
Sinotrans Shipping’s dry bulk arm saw a slightly weaker performance from its dry bulk arm which saw revenue down 12% year-on-year to $211m.
The average daily TCE rate of its bulkers was $12,430 per day, against the $9,514 per day seen in 2017, and 10% higher than the average charter rates of BDI.
In contrast its container shipping operation reported revenue of $283.9m, which was 9.25% higher than the $259.8m seen in the first half of 2017.
The average freight rate of the China Containerized Freight Index (CCFI) China-Japan route was 719 points during the first half of 2018, an increase of 8.1% year-on-year.
Sinotrans Shipping attributed this to the steady growth of trade volume under the improving relations between China and Japan.
The average freight rate of CCFI China to Australia route was 864 points, representing a year-on-year increase of 31.1% as it benefitted from the rapid rebound of the Australian economy.
Sinotrans Shipping said it handled 484,000-teu in the first half of 2018 against the 471,000-teu in the same period a year ago, while the average income per teu was $427, a year-on-year increase of 10%.
