| |
| |
![]() |
| |
|
| |
|
| |
|
COPENHAGEN: Danish shipping giant A.P. Moeller-Maersk, the world's largest container transporter, reported on Thursday a net loss for the first nine months of 2009 owing to a fall in global oil and transport prices.
The shipping and oil group made a loss of 3.86 billion kroner (518 million euros, 776 million dollars) compared to a profit of 17.68 billion kroner for the same period in 2008 after a slump in sales in the global economic crisis.
"As expected, the A.P.Moeller-Maersk Group was still negatively affected by the challenging market conditions in the third quarter of 2009, particularly in the markets for the Group's container vessels and tankers," chief executive Nils Smedegaard Andersen said in a statement.
The shipper's earnings sank 76 percent before taxes, tumbling to 11.65 billion kroner over nine months, compared to 53.5 billion kroner for the same period in 2008.
Its operating profit before financial items plunged 70 percent to 15.8 billion kroner compared to 53.5 billion for the same period last year.
Despite the gloomier-than-expected earnings, the group maintained its outlook of a net loss of one billion US dollars for 2009.
Investors, having expected better results and an improved outlook, reacted strongly to the company's earnings and share prices slumped by 6.38 percent to 32,500 kroner in midday trading, dragging down the Copenhagen stock market by 1.5 percent.
Moeller-Maersk stayed in the red despite savings of 7.5 billion kroner, dragged down by crude oil prices that were on average 48 percent lower than those in 2008.
Lower transport tariffs and volumes also dragged down the company's earnings, falling respectively 30 and 5.0 percent, management said.
"Current transport prices are not good enough to make money in container freight," Andersen told investors in a teleconference, adding that he expected slightly higher prices in the next quarter.
Andersen said the shipping industry's supply would exceed demand "for quite a while" and explained there was "always a need" to dock some of the company's ships and return leased ones.
Of the shipper's 498 container vessels, 13 were removed from traffic and eight were laid up, the group said.
Container shipping, Moeller-Maersk's largest division where sales fell by 24 percent to 82.2 billion kroner, registered a net loss of 8.4 billion kroner for the first nine months of 2009.
It had made a profit of 1.9 billion for the same period a year ago.
The company's losses were slightly compensated by positive earnings of 5.24 billion kroner in its oil and gas activities, though that was less than half the earnings for the corresponding period in 2008.
Andersen said the company expected to save a total of 10 billion kroner on its expenses for 2009.
"Without those savings, we would be losing 15 billion for 2009, instead of five billion," he said. - AFP/de
|
