Uni-Asia books rise in full year charter income

Last year’s charter income for Uni-Asia’s shipowning arm Uni-Asia Shipping was recorded at $30.47m, a jump of 57% from $19.4m in 2014.

The higher charter income was partly offset by increased vessel operating expenses of $13.61m in 2015 from $8.31m in 2014m, due mainly to a larger fleet size.

Uni-Asia Shipping operates a fleet of eight dry bulk carriers and one containership. It took delivery of two bulkers in February and March 2015, and welcomed the containership in April last year.

Singapore-listed Uni-Asia said the continued depressed shipping market resulted in the group recognising fair value losses of $3.2m from its shipping portfolio in 2015.

Although the group, with its relatively young fleet, is in a good position to withstand the downturn in the shipping market, a prolonged period of depressed charter rates may affect the performance of the group.

“The shipping market remained depressed due to weak demand and oversupply of vessels. Although scrapping activities for small handysize bulk carrier are expected to alleviate overcapacity and stabilise charter rates, we don’t expect strong recovery in charter demand in the near term. However, our fee business from financial services driven by demand in Europe could help make up for the underperformance of our shipping portfolio,” said Michio Tanamoto, chairman and ceo of Uni-Asia.

“Meanwhile, our property and hotel operating business are doing well and adding to the profit for the group. We believe that our property and hotel operating business will continue to contribute to the group’s profit momentum while the group rides through the difficult shipping market,” he added.

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