Siba Ships Results Surge

The Siba Ships group, which includes the shipping company Siba Ships Spa based in Brescia (Italy) and its newly established subsidiary company Siba Ships Asia Pte Ltd based in Singapore, has closed its 2006 financial year with a major surge in turnover and a profit of more than 6 million Euros, a result which continues the four positive year trend of the group.

Mauro Balzarini, chairman of Siba Ships, says that in the course of 2006 the company, exploiting the favorable trend of shipping, pursued an expansion and diversification process which was already in progress. The company strengthened its presence in South-East Asia, a geographical area of continuously growing interest, by opening a new wholly owned company Siba Ships Asia Pte Ltd in Singapore.

Turnover tripled during 2006 to 70 million Euros, which is almost three times the value obtained during 2005, a result achieved thanks to strong freight rates and also as a consequence of the larger number of the ships operated by the group, which increased from 8 to 17. The number of the bulkers operated has increased from 4 to 12, two of them owned by the company and the others on time charter, and a product tanker has been taken on time charter.

During 2006, for the first time, the revenues coming from the dry cargo sector were higher than those coming from the core business of the company, the livestock trading, with 60 percent of the income produced by the dry sector and 36 percent by the livestock ships.

Livestock sector

Four ships were employed in the sector during 2006, including the livestock carrier Deneb Prima, the biggest ship in the world of this type, which joined the fleet in March 2006. Volumes and freight rates increased during 2006. Siba Ships carried 268,000 cattle (68 percent higher than in 2005) and 646,000 sheep (15 percent higher than in 2005). The principal market continued to be Australia, with cargoes bound to South-East Asia (increased by 65 percent and 180 percent respectively toward Indonesia and Malaysia) and Middle East (increased by 298 percent in the number of sheep exported to Saudi Arabia). News routes also have been added, such as New Zealand to Mexico, which will become regular and will be strengthened in the next financial period.

In the next financial period the first of the two ultra modern livestock carriers ordered from Labroy Marine in Singapore is due to enter into service, while the second ship is expected in the following period. These two ships will further reinforce the leadership of Siba Ships in the sector of the livestock transport, not only in terms of volume, but also in terms of transport quality and well-being of the animals.

Dry cargo sector

In the course of 2006, the fleet grew with 8 bulk carriers added to the managed fleet. Contracts were signed for four newbuildings that will enter into service between 2007 and 2009. The volume of business generated in this sector increased from 12 million Euros in 2005 to 42 million Euros in 2006, generating an operating profit of 3.6 million euros.

Liquid cargo sector

The company diversified by entering in the tanker sector, for the carriage of clean liquid products (gas oil, jet fuel, etc, but also vegetable oils). A tanker was taken under a five year time charter contract, and Siba Ships also took a shareholding in specialist vegoil operator Merlin Tankers.