Samudera Shipping Ltd, the Indonesia-based but Singapore-listed container line, has announced its first quarter after tax profit of S$8.08 million (US$5.3 million), a rise of 19.1 per cent year on year.
Higher profit came despite an increase in expenses from S$600,000 to S$1.8 million because of lower service costs - falling 21.5 per cent to S$123.2 million - due to charter-hire and bunker charge reductions, which resulted from the discontinuation of the China-India-Middle East Express (CIX) service and cutting vessels from three to one on the China-India service.
The group also enjoyed a smaller foreign exchange loss of S$1.2 million, compared to S$3.7 million in the same period the year before.
Revenue for the non-container shipping improved 33.6 per cent to S$15.4 million compared to the year-ago quarter. But the line also suffered from a fall in freight rates, and a 4.7 per cent decline in box container volume to 341,000 TEU.
The group's launch of the Chittagong Express Service (CGX) in March 2007 has extended the line's coverage of the Indian subcontinent, and will allow it to further exploit opportunities in the main port of Bangladesh.
Samudera is one of PT Samudera Indonesia subsidiaries incorporated in Singapore in 1993, which became a public company listed on the Singapore Exchange in 2000. |
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