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Bulk source of optimism for loss making STX Pan Ocean

Bulk source of optimism for loss making STX Pan Ocean

Seoul: South Korean shipping giant STX Pan Ocean made losses of $35.7m in the second quarter compared to $173m profits in the equivalent period last year. Revenues dropped 70.1% to $804.9m in the quarter. The result took the half year losses to $105.8m on revenues down 68.2% at $1.57bn. The partial revival of the bulk market this year meant STX Pan Ocean losses were lower in the second quarter as bulk carriage accounts for the major part of revenues at just over $1bn of first half revenues.
The company operates also in the container, car carrier, tanker and LNG segments. Only LNG produced profits at the operating level in the first half, the others were all in the red.
For the rest of the year the company is reasonably optimistic that the threatened "supply disaster" in drybulk is unlikely because of a combination of delivery delays on newbuildings (only 53% of the scheduled bulker orderbook was actually delivered in the first half) and increased scrapping. On the demand side it expects coal and iron ore trade to remain strong.  [14/08/09]