Taiwanese carrier Yang Ming Marine took the delivery of a new 4,662 teu box ship on 18 May, while predicting a loss for the first half of 2015.
The new ship, YM Express, is the last of the five 4,662 teu container ships built by CSBC Corporation for Yang Ming. The ship is 259 m long and 37.3 m wide, with 400 plugs for reefer containers on board.
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It will be deployed for Yang Ming’s China-Pakistan Express (CPX) service to replace the current ship. The port rotation of CPX is Shanghai, Ningbo, Shekou, Singapore, Karachi (Pakistan), Mundra (India), Port Klang (Malaysia), Singapore, Hong Kong, and back to Shanghai.
Yang Ming’s performance in the first quarter of 2015 was lower than expected, according to local shipping analysts. The carrier recorded a revenue of TWD33.2 billion (USD1.1 billion) and a profit of TWD303 million for the period.
The company’s bulk shipping branch, Kuang Ming Shipping, suffered a loss of TWD760 million in first-quarter 2015, causing a loss of TWD659 million to Yang Ming, which holds 86% shares in Kuang Ming Shipping.
The freight rates of European services dropped 66% to the bottom of USD343/teu in April from the USD1,003/teu in February, according to Yang Ming.
The carrier forecast that its revenue would be at TWD29.2 billion for the second quarter this year, down 11.5% from last quarter, and its earnings per share (EPS) would be negative, suffering the loss of TWD0.21 per share. The freight rates are expected to bottom out in the third quarter of 2015, and Yang Ming is expected to make a revenue of TWD35.1 billion for that period, with its EPS standing at TWD0.23 per share.
This post was sourced from IHS Maritime 360: View the original article here.