Singapore-headquartered shipowner Epic Gas deepened into a net loss of USD2 million for the second quarter ended on 30 June 2015 from a loss of USD1.4 million last year, despite higher revenue contribution for the period.
Revenue rose by 20% year on year (y/y) to USD32.9 million in the second quarter of 2015 from USD27.4 million. The higher earnings were attributed to the higher utilisation for the company’s larger pressurised vessels. In the second quarter of 2015, Epic Gas recorded a total of 3,367 calendar days for its vessel charters, up 27% y/y, and 35% of the calendar day rates came from vessels larger than 7,000 m³.
“The company’s competitive position in the larger vessel sizes drove a further geographic shift in our business as several of our 7,000 m³ and our recently delivered 11,000 m³ vessel began trading in the Americas and performing occasional trans-Atlantic shipments of LPG and petrochemicals,” said Epic Gas in its corporate release.
Thus, Epic Gas anticipates further growth in its North and South American trade as well as trans-Atlantic market as it takes delivery of bigger new vessels.
Despite the company’s improved vessel utilisation, the market freight rates continued to slide. In addition, Epic Gas also faced rising costs – its finance expenses went up 38% y/y to USD3.3 million in the second quarter of 2015. The increase was due to costs incurred from finance leases and bank borrowings.
As of 30 June, the company’s orderbook for pressurised vessels stood at 36 ships and 248,400 m³ of capacity, representing 17% of the existing global pressurised fleet. During the second quarter of 2015, Epic Gas has delivered seven vessels representing 34,500 m³ of capacity, while one pressure vessel of 3,000 m³capacity and three small semi-refrigerated/ethylene vessels of 18,100 m³capacity were scrapped during the period.
This post was sourced from IHS Maritime 360: View the original article here.
