Michio Tanamoto, chairman and ceo of alternative investment firm Uni-Asia Group, noted that Uni-Asia Shipping has boosted its earnings due mainly to higher charter income.
“The charter hire market will improve due to a reducing supply of new tonnage into the market, and we are at a comfortable position with our 15 vessels with eight on long term charters and seven on short term charters,” Tanamoto told Seatrade Maritime News.
Uni-Asia Shipping generated charter income of $18m in the January-June 2017 period, up 9% from $16.6m in the same period of last year, due mainly to better spot charter rates for the group’s portfolio of ships under short term charter.
The shipping division’s profit after tax in the first half came up to $2.97m as against the loss of $2.32m in the previous corresponding period.
The fleet of Uni-Asia Shipping’s wholly-owned and jointly-owned vessels comprises primarily of handysize bulkers of 37,000 dwt, all of which are Japanese-built ships.
The fleet will be expanded with four jointly-owned newbuilding bulkers of 36,400-37,600-dwt in capacity scheduled to join between 2018 to 2019.
“Apart from the four newbuildings, we have no plans at the moment to further expand our fleet,” Tanamoto said.
Tanamoto recalled that over this year, while the BDI touched a high of 1,333 towards end-March before retreating to 901 at end-June, the group remains cautiously optimistic that the dry bulk market will improve going forward as tonnage supply is tightening while the commodities market is gradually recovering.
Tanamoto also expressed confidence that the vessels on short term charters can expect charter hires to be renewed at higher rates on improving market fundamentals.
Meanwhile, the Uni-Asia Group recently completed a corporate restructuring, changing its place of incorporation from the Cayman Islands to Singapore and changing its Singapore-listed name from Uni-Asia Holdings to Uni-Asia Group via a scheme of arrangment.
Apart from running a shipping business, Uni-Asia Group also has businesses in property investment and hotel management.
As at 30 June 2017, the group’s total assets allocation was majority in shipping accounting for 66.6%, followed by property investment with 18.8%, and others at 14.6%.
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