Titan to tank

Titan Petrochemicals is set to report a “substantial loss” for the 2009 financial year, the company said Tuesday.

The deterioration is primarily due to the weak market conditions in the shipbuilding business as evidenced by the lack of newbuilding orders, it said.

It added that significant increase in the supply of double hull tankers had also negatively impacted the demand for its single hull fleet.

In the first half of the year the Hong Kong shipbuilder and storage company reported a loss of HKD53.8m ($7m).

“It is expected that our performance in the second half of FY2009 will reflect further deterioration as compared with that of the first half,” Titan said.

Unofficial results show Titan slipping to a loss of HKD305.3m in the nine months to 30 September 2009 versus a loss of HKD194.2m a year ago.

Revenue for the nine months was just under HKD1.3bn, significantly down on the HKD7.3bn seen twelve months ago.

Since the 1 July 2009 Titan says it has delivered two 7,000-dwt bunker and one 9,000-dwt chemical tankers.

It has three further 9,000-dwt ships under construction and due for delivery from its Quanzhou Shipyard in 2010.

Titan says it has revised the target ship repair at its Chinese shipyard to 150, 210 and 250 vessels for the years 2011, 2012 and 2013.

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