Cosco Shipping Energy Transportation (CSET), the tanker arm of state conglomerate China Cosco Shipping, has managed to eke out a small profit for 2018 due to strong recovery in tanker earnings towards year-end.
Having posted net losses of CNY 268.3m ($38.5m) in the first nine months of last year, the Shanghai- and Hong Kong-listed company expected its net profits to have ranged between CNY 80m and CNY 180m in 2018.
“Crude shipping markets were at a historic low in the first three quarters. Demand for tankers were constrained by lower exports from Venezuela, the US sanctions on Iran, and the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries’ production cut,” CSET said in a filing.
“But the earnings rebounded in the fourth quarter due to heavy scrapping and seasonal demand,” according to the company, adding that VLCC earnings averaged nearly $45,000 per day on the benchmark Middle East-China route during October-December.
The net results were still weaker than the 2017 level of CNY 1.77bn, though. When one-off items were excluded, net profits amounted to CNY 20m-CNY 120m in 2018, compared with CNY 1.27bn in 2017.
CSET is due to publish its full, audited report for 2018 on 29 March.
With a fleet of over 180 oil and LNG tankers as of last October, CSET is one of the world’s largest energy shipping firms in terms of fleet and asset sizes.
According to Clarksons, the company is the world’s second largest crude carrier in terms of carrying capacity.
