| CMES' profit surges 22.6% in Q1 2015 |
| Shanghai-listed China Merchants Energy Shipping (CMES) on 29 April posted a profit of CNY225 million for the first quarter of 2015, surging 22.6% from the same period of 2014. The company recorded revenue of CNY1.4 billion in the first quarter of 2015, rocketing 106.2% year on year (y/y), and its earnings per share climbed up 25%, standing at CNY0.05. In January, CMES inked a deal with Dalian Shipbuilding Industry on the construction of a 319,000 dwt VLCC. Two other VLCCs owned by China VLCC, a subsidiary of CMES, have been chartered out to BP and Shell respectively on a two-year term with an aggregate hires of CNY360 million in February, which contributed to 14% of the company’s revenue in 2014. In February, China VLCC took the delivery of New Prosperity and New Achievement, the second and third of 10 eco-VLCCs built by Shanghai Waigaoqiao Shipbuilding and Dalian Shipbuilding Industry, respectively. At the same time, China VLCC inked a long-term crude oil transport agreement with West Pacific Petrochemical and purchased a 310,000 dwt VLCC built in 2008. CMES’s VLCC fleet made gross profit of CNY422 million in the first quarter of 2015, rising 186% from the first quarter of 2014, and its joint LNG fleet made profit of CNY21.9 million, up 1.8% y/y. In the first quarter of 2015, the average freight rates of VLCC rose from the last quarter of 2014, and the term charter equivalent rates were much higher than that in 2014, stated the company in its filing to Shanghai Stock Exchange. |