|
New China strategy for HK's Pacific Basin
POSTED: 8:54 a.m. EDT, August 9,2007
Pacific Basin Shipping's port investment in the Yangtze River Delta port of Nanjing will come online later this month, allowing China's largest river port to handle the carrier's handymax and handysize vessels.
The Hong Kong-listed bulk shipping specialist signed an agreement last month with the Nanjing Port Group to co-invest in and jointly operate the three-berth port facility.
Chief executive Richard Hext told reporters at the interim results announcement that increasing demand for handysize and handymax dry bulk ships, fuelled by strong global industrial growth and a supply squeeze have pushed freight rates to all time highs.
This helped Pacific Basin achieve a net profit of US$162.9%, almost 80 percent above the same period last year.
Handysize revenue days increased by 27 percent to 9,590 in the first half, and the handysize daily rate rose by 37 percent to US$19,750.
Hext said the carrier intended to capitalise on China's robust bulk imports by developing further port sites on the mainland.
"China turned from being a net coal exporter to a net coal importer in January. It is exporting less coal to Japan and Korea and retaining more coal for internal use," Hext said.
Former Sinotrans executive Wang Chun Lin joined Pacific Basin late last year and is helping drive the China strategy. |
|
RELATED