The bright spot, however, is a growing Indonesian economy which is anticipated to continue fuelling demand for regional container shipping, Indonesia-based Samudera believed.
“On the other hand, high bunker prices could take a serious toll on the segment's cost of operations,” Samudera said.
The company is looking forward to an impending expiry of a number of charter-in-contracts in the year ahead to allow the segment to benefit from the current low charter rates and renew those contracts at lower rates, offsetting the higher costs of operations.
Difficult operating environment has sent Singapore-listed Samudera into the red in the first quarter as it posted a net loss of $4.42m compared to a deficit of $3.86m in the same period of 2012.
Revenue fell 12.8% year-on-year to $96.32m.
“While the first quarter is customarily a low season for the shipping industry, the (regional container shipping) segment was also impacted by increased competition from long-haul main-line operators deploying their idle capacity in regional waters,” the company said.
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