China Merchant Energy Shipping (CMES), part of state conglomerate China Merchants Group, said it received government subsidies totalling CNY 54.98m ($7.95m) for demolition of vessels.
According to an exchange filing, the Shanghai-listed company expects the subsidies to have positive impact on its bottom line this year.
It was not immediately known under which subsidy programme CMES received the cash.
Beijing’s official scrap-and-build subsidy scheme ended last December.
“It was possible those were from CMES’ deals in 2017. It’s not unusual for government subsidies to come several months after the deals happened,” said a Shanghai-based industry source.
Calls to a CMES spokesman weren’t answered.
CMES, one of the world’s largest tanker and bulker owners, didn’t sell any vessels in scrap deals during the first half of 2018, according to its interim report.
Pressured by weak tanker earnings, net profits of CMES fell 79.6% on year to CNY 105m during January-June.
As of July 19, the company owned a fleet of 133 vessels totalling 2.31m dwt, including 50 oil tankers, 52 bulkers, 12 LNG carriers and 19 ro-ros.
