|
SEOUL—Hanjin
Shipping Co., South Korea’s largest shipping line,
posted a smaller first-quarter loss as growing world
trade allowed it to charge more for carrying containers
and raw materials.
Net loss
was 30.4 billion won ($29 million) in the three months
ended March, compared with 46.6 billion won a year
earlier, the Seoul-based company said in a regulatory
filing late Tuesday. Sales rose 30 percent to 2 trillion
won.
Operating profit surged 13-fold as the shipping line
charged more to carry raw materials to
China
and to haul containers to Europe. The gains were eroded
by a weaker won, which dropped 11 percent, raising the
value of Hanjin’s dollar-denominated debt.
“Both
container and dry-bulk rates will be strong for the rest
of the year,” said Song Jae Hak, an analyst at Woori
Investment & Securities Co. in Seoul. “A currency loss
was inevitable.” He has a “buy” rating on Hanjin.
Operating profit, or sales minus the cost of goods sold
and administrative expenses, soared to 104.2 billion won
from 7.8 billion won a year ago, the shipping line said
in a statement. Oil and bulk cargos, such as iron ore
and coal, accounted for 72 percent of the profit.
Hanjin
has boosted its bulk and oil-carrying businesses because
of surging rates. First-quarter sales from
noncontainerized cargo nearly doubled to 499 billion
won. Container-shipping sales rose 17 percent to 1.5
trillion won. Last year 81 percent of the company’s
sales came from carrying containers.
The
shipping line said late Tuesday it plans to more than
double its fleet of oil tankers and bulk-cargo vessels
to about 250 over the next five years from 100 at
present. The move will be helped by the acquisition of
the outstanding shares in unit Keoyang Shipping Co.
announced in April.
Hanjin
also said it had placed a 300-billion won order for two
very large crude carriers because of rising rates.
Hyundai Heavy Industries Co. will build the 320,000
deadweight-ton tankers for delivery by 2012.
The
Baltic Dry index, a measure of shipping costs for
commodities, has jumped 53 percent in the past year, led
by Chinese demand for iron ore, used to make steel.
Shares
of the shipping line have gained 12 percent this year,
compared with a 2.9-percent drop in the benchmark Kospi
index.
The
won’s weakness against the dollar crimped earnings. The
shipping line said it booked “noncash translation
losses” and losses from derivates used for hedging,
without disclosing the size of the losses.
Hanjin
in February leased nine very large container vessels,
which can carry 13,000 units of 20-foot container boxes,
to use for more than 12 years, the statement said.
(Bloomberg) |
