Pan Ocean Books 23 Pct Higher Q1 Profit

Singapore-listed shipowner Pan Ocean wrapped up the first quarter of 2018 with a 23 percent rise in profit year-on-year.

The company booked USD 34  million in profit in the Q1 2018, against last year’s USD 28 million.

The group achieved sales of USD 527 million, an increase of 16 pct when compared to the same period in the prior year.

“In the first quarter of 2018, the average BDI increased by 24 pct year-on-year to 1,175. In addition, this figure is 2.6 pct higher than the BDI average annual rate in the previous year. For this reason, the market is expected to improve for the remaining period of 2018,” Pan Ocean said.

The boost in financial performance has been attributed to improving market fundamentals, driven by marginal fleet growth.

As informed,  about 20 million dwt is expected to be added to the global fleet in 2018, down from 47.2 million and 38.2 million dwt reported for 2016 and 2017 respectively.

Hence, as supply growth is contained, demand growth in 2018 is expected to outweigh fleet expansion like last year. Accordingly, earnings in the dry bulk market are expected to improve in 2018, Pan Ocean added.