Trailer Bridge, Inc. reported financial results for the second quarter ended June 30, 2002 highlighted by a significantly reduced losses, profits in the months of May and June and the beginning effects from what is anticipated to be sharp and continuing improvements in market conditions in the Puerto Rico lane.
When the company released its first quarter results, it disclosed a just announced transaction where a competitor with a 27 percent market share and operating under Chapter 11 of the bankruptcy code had sold its vessel assets to another competitor. Shortly after that transaction was finalized in mid-May, the purchaser began taking steps that effectively resulted in two-thirds of the capacity of the purchased vessels that were deployed being permanently removed from the Puerto Rico market.
Trailer Bridge believes this action addresses some two-thirds of the excess capacity in the lane, which was previously approximately 30 percent. The company believes that this previous level of excess capacity has been the root cause of the hyper-competitive conditions in the Puerto Rico market. With this change, Trailer Bridge believes it and the other remaining carriers in the lane will benefit from greater asset utilization and an unwinding of the unsustainable pricing characteristic of recent years. Trailer Bridge’s own effective yield on core southbound loads is down approximately 25 percent
from five years ago.
The discontinuance of the direct Northeast service at the end of last year, while significantly reducing costs, reduced revenues in Q2 2002 and led to an overall reduction in vessel capacity deployed of 26.3 percent this quarter when compared to the second quarter of 2001. Total revenue for the three months ended June 30, 2002 was $18,116,637, a decrease of $3,542,547 or 16.4% compared to the prior year period; revenues in the second quarter of 2001 included sales related to the now closed Northeast service. The Company’s total volume of freight moving to and from Puerto Rico decreased 17.3 percent compared to the year earlier period.