STX Pan Ocean back in the black

Dual Seoul and Singapore listed STX Pan Ocean reported a $20.1m profit for the first quarter of the year. The $20.1m profit compared to a $70m loss in the same period in 2009. Revenues jumped 51% in the first quarter of 2010 to $1.16bn compared to $769m a year earlier. STX Pan Ocean said the better performance was largely due to a stronger dry bulk market with the Baltic Dry Index averaging 3,027 points in the first quarter of this year, compared to 1,562 points in the same period in 2009. It noted China had imported a tremendous volume of coal during the winter boosting the dry bulk shipping market. STX Pan Ocean said it expected to see further improvement in the market in 2010 based on various demand and supply factors, although it noted a lot of problems remained with an imbalanced recovery.