Cosco Corp, a ship repair and bulk shipping company controlled by China's biggest shipping firm, said on Monday it was on track for higher full-year profit as quarterly earnings rose 30 percent on brisk demand at its China shipyards.
The Singapore-listed company, which increasingly relies on ship repairs and conversions and has recently said it may sell its shipping business, said in a statement that second-quarter net profit rose to S$51 million ($32.3 million) from S$39.4 million a year ago. Sales rose 26 percent to S$265 million.
Cosco, majority-owned by China Ocean Shipping Co, is profiting from its fast-growing ship repair operations in China where it generates the lion's share of its sales by converting single-hull tankers to double-hull to bring them in line with new maritime regulations.
"The high yield ship repair, conversion and offshore marine engineering projects secured in the first six months...have already far exceeded those secured in the whole of 2005," Cosco President Ji Hai Sheng said in a statement.
According to the average of eight forecasts from analysts polled by Reuters Estimates, Cosco's profit is expected to rise by 15 percent this year to around S$184 million.
The company may eventually sell its bulk shipping business to focus entirely on repairing ships as well as building offshore oil rigs for Chinese oil firms - a new business for Cosco.
Comments
Comments are closed.