Precious profit plummets

A shrinking fleet and lower freight rates sent second-quarter profit plummeting at Thailand’s Precious Shipping (PCL).

The Bangkok-quoted owner also saw gains from ship disposals slashed while some vessels came off time charters and had to be put into a weak spot market.

Net profit for the three months to the end of June was THB 160.07m ($4.97m) as against THB 1.09bn a year earlier.

A major factor was the slump in total vessel operating income from THB 1.5bn last time around to THB 714.13m this time. A major factor in this was the fall of the fleet from an average of 35 units to 21 as the owner continued to shed older tonnage.

But average daily time charter equivalent (TCE) rates were also down in any case, heading from $13,320 to $11,949.

Disposals gains of THB 63.91m were only a fraction of the THB 384.02m taken in the second quarter last year. However, only one ship was sold in the latest quarter with eight hived off in the comparable period.

PCL did see its absolute vessel operating expenses slashed by 47% as the fleet shrank while average daily vessel operating costs sank slightly from $4,990 to $4,824.

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