It came as the owner confirmed its exit from the capesize market with the sale of its last two vessels.
Lauritzen carried bulker impairments of $173.4m in the first half, of which $87.4m came from its large bulk business.
With all exceptional articles totalled up, special items of $86m contributed to a $144.6m deficit at the half way mark of 2015.
Jan Kastrup-Nielsen, chief executive if the shipowner, said: “The dry cargo markets encountered during the first half of 2015 turned out to be weakest for the last 30 years severely impacting our EBITDA.
“Changing Chinese import patterns of permanent nature combined with the large number of newbuildings scheduled for delivery until the end of 2017 have in our opinion put dry cargo vessel values under pressure resulting in impairments influencing our bottom-line result. Our gas carriers continued to perform as expected”
Lauritzen is now guiding for a bottom line loss of $170m to $200m this year, compared with the $80m to $135m it had previously forecast.
Core operating guidance has been narrowed from negative $15m to $65m to a deficit of between $25m and $55m.
Capes sold
In the report Lauritzen confirmed its long-anticipated departure from the capesize market with the sale of the 179,000-dwt Churchill Bulker and Corona Bulker (built 2011).
While it did not reveal details of the disposals, TradeWinds has reported both vessels were snapped up by Marmaras Navigation of Greece.
Lauritzen's operating figures were less dramatic, which negative EBITDA of $17.9m in the six months to the end of June.
A core operating loss of $24.9m from its bulker division was partially cancelled out by am $11.2m positive contribution from Lauritzen Kosan.
Lauritzen has $155m in cash and undrawn credit facilities, its half-year report said.
This marks a fall from $284m at the start of the year due to both bond repayments and negative cash flow.
