Strong Returns for Sovcomflot
Russia’s biggest shipping company PAO Sovcomflot (SCF Group) surpassed its own expectations and went forward on both revenue and net profit in the first six months.
It has posted a gross revenue increase of 11.8 per cent in the first half of 2015 worth USD 754.9 million against last year’s equivalent of USD 675. 2 million.
In addition, the company’s net profit marked a hike from USD 63.6 million in 2014 to USD 216.3 million in the first six months of this year.
“Sovcomflot achieved very strong results exceeding our own forecasts for the period and reflecting a sustained contribution from both the conventional tanker and industrial shipping segments. The tanker markets were favourable towards shipowners, and Sovcomflot was well positioned to benefit from the anticipated rise in the spot tanker freight markets given the quality and size of its fleet and efficient chartering policy based on in-house analytics,” Sergey Frank, President and CEO of PAO Sovcomflot, said.
During the period, 170,200 cu m LNG carriers SCF Melampus and SCF Mitre were delivered and chartered to Royal Dutch Shell. Meanwhile Sovcomflot currently has eight vessels under construction, with a combined worth of $1,279m, including an ice-breaking LNG carrier, one multifunctional ice-breaking supply (MIB) vessel, three MIB standby vessels and three Arctic shuttle tankers.
Tank Company executives are cautiously optimistic about the rest of 2015.
"The tanker markets were favourable towards shipowners, and Sovcomflot was well positioned to benefit from the anticipated rise in the spot tanker freight markets given the quality and size of its fleet and efficient chartering policy based on in-house analytics."
As at 30 June 2015, the SCF Group fleet comprised 150 owned and chartered vessels (including vessels in joint ownership with third parties) comprising over 12.8 million deadweight tonnes in total.
Assets under construction at the period-end comprised eight vessels, with a total deadweight of 233,800 tonnes.
This included: one ice-breaking LNG carrier; one multifunctional ice-breaking supply MIB) vessel; three MIB standby vessels and three Arctic shuttle tankers scheduled for delivery between June 2016 and April 2017 at a total contracted cost to the Group of USD 1,279.0 million. All of the new build vessels are contracted to Oil Majors on long term fixed income charters.
