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Courage Marine widens Q1 loss to $1m, expects weak year ahead

Dry bulk player Courage Marine saw its first quarter loss widen to $1.0m from $622,000 previously as revenue rose just 6% to $5.3m while costs rose 11% to $5.4m.

Vincent Wee, Hong Kong and South East Asia Correspondent

May 15, 2014

1 Min Read
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Courage blamed the higher losses on higher crew fees and depreciation expenses arising from the operation of more vessels as it boosted its fleet. Although this resulted in slightly higher revenue, the continued weakness of rates in the first quarter countered this.

The group also saw other income fall 84% to $29,000 in the first quarter as a one-off insurance claim received in the previous corresponding quarter helped to boost income.

Looking ahead, Courage said: "The dry bulk market remains weak and the BDI, which has a close correlation to freight rates, is low at the 1,000 level. Low demand for commodities in the Greater China Region, in particular during the Chinese New Year period, and the oversupply of vessels led to more pressure on the freight rates of the dry bulk market. The group remains cautious on the outlook for 2014."

It added that it expects financial performance for the year to be adversely affected by the current challenging economic conditions and uncertain outlook.

About the Author

Vincent Wee

Hong Kong and South East Asia Correspondent

Vincent Wee is Seatrade's Hong Kong correspondent covering Hong Kong and South China while also making use of his Malay language skills to cover the Malaysia and Indonesia markets. He has gained a keen insight and extensive knowledge of the offshore oil and gas markets gleaned while covering major rig builders and offshore supply vessel providers.

Vincent has been a journalist for over 15 years, spending the bulk of his career with Singapore's biggest business daily the Business Times, and covering shipping and logistics since 2007. Prior to that he spent several years working for Brunei's main English language daily as well as various other trade publications.

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