Singapore-listed offshore services provider Otto Marine has clinched new contracts worth USD131 million in the second quarter of 2015 amid bearish market demand.
The bulk of the contracts was contributed by its chartering business, which is in line with the company’s strategy of improving its fleet utilitsation to reduce cost incurred from idle vessels.
In addition, the company has adopted a corporate strategy of geographical diversification in vessels deployment since 2010 for better profitability.
“Australia has been a much more stable market for chartering as supported by LNG projects. As we have large-size, DNV-class vessels capable to operate in deepwater, Otto Marine is one of the very few Asian operators working for the North Sea market, where we still maintain a reasonably healthy utilisation rate. At the same time, Latin American and African markets are performing much more steadily than Asia,” explained Michael See, Otto Marine group CEO.
He stated that Otto Marine has maintained good “flexibility” in fleet-size management despite weakening chartering rates.
“While we enjoy better profit from our own vessels, we can return chartered-in vessels at expiration, and charter in additional, more technologically advanced vessels that bring in immediate contracts,” said See in the company’s filing to the Singapore Exchange.
This post was sourced from IHS Maritime 360: View the original article here.
