U-Ming Marine Transport Corp (裕民航運), one of the nation’s major bulk shippers and a member of the Far Eastern Group (遠東集團), plans to sell off some vessels and offload shares in other Far Eastern affiliates to improve its profitability this year.
The Baltic Dry Index (BDI) — a measure of shipping costs for commodities — stood at 1,171 points on Friday, an increase of nearly 40 percent from a month earlier, an indication that the bulk shipping industry may have seen freight rates bottom out.
However, U-Ming Marine spokesman Stephen Chen (陳秀能) remained relatively cautious about the company’s operating profitability this year.
“It would be challenging for the company to generate income from its core business this year,” Chen told a press conference yesterday.
Chen said U-Ming Marine — which operates about 50 bulk ships — aims to maintain its profitability this year by strengthening non-operating income, including selling off old vessels and selling shares of other units at the group.
The company sold off two ships in the first half of this year, and plans to offload another two older vessels in the second half, Chen said.
In terms of core business, the company will do its best to reach the break-even point this year, and expects the recent rush of demand for iron ore from China to consistently raise freight rates, Chen added.
Oversupply has hampered the global shipping industry over the past two years, with the number of new bulk vessels this year still expected to reach 1,000, the same as recorded last year.
However, U-Ming Marine president C.K. Ong (王書吉) told shareholders last month that the bulk shipping market may achieve equilibrium in 2015 on the back of improving supply and demand.
The company reported net income of NT$197.54 million (US$6.56 million), or NT$0.23 per share, in the first quarter of the year, compared with a net profit of NT$585.57 million, or NT$0.68 per share, a year earlier, the company’s stock exchange filing showed.
Its shares fell 0.11 percent to NT$46.95 yesterday, compared with the TAIEX’s 0.33 percent drop.
KEEPING UP: The acquisition of a cleanroom in Taiwan would enable Micron to increase production in a market where demand continues to outpace supply, a Micron official said Micron Technology Inc has signed a letter of intent to buy a fabrication site in Taiwan from Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp (力積電) for US$1.8 billion to expand its production of memory chips. Micron would take control of the P5 site in Miaoli County’s Tongluo Township (銅鑼) and plans to ramp up DRAM production in phases after the transaction closes in the second quarter, the company said in a statement on Saturday. The acquisition includes an existing 12 inch fab cleanroom of 27,871m2 and would further position Micron to address growing global demand for memory solutions, the company said. Micron expects the transaction to
Vincent Wei led fellow Singaporean farmers around an empty Malaysian plot, laying out plans for a greenhouse and rows of leafy vegetables. What he pitched was not just space for crops, but a lifeline for growers struggling to make ends meet in a city-state with high prices and little vacant land. The future agriculture hub is part of a joint special economic zone launched last year by the two neighbors, expected to cost US$123 million and produce 10,000 tonnes of fresh produce annually. It is attracting Singaporean farmers with promises of cheaper land, labor and energy just over the border.
US actor Matthew McConaughey has filed recordings of his image and voice with US patent authorities to protect them from unauthorized usage by artificial intelligence (AI) platforms, a representative said earlier this week. Several video clips and audio recordings were registered by the commercial arm of the Just Keep Livin’ Foundation, a non-profit created by the Oscar-winning actor and his wife, Camila, according to the US Patent and Trademark Office database. Many artists are increasingly concerned about the uncontrolled use of their image via generative AI since the rollout of ChatGPT and other AI-powered tools. Several US states have adopted
A proposed billionaires’ tax in California has ignited a political uproar in Silicon Valley, with tech titans threatening to leave the state while California Governor Gavin Newsom of the Democratic Party maneuvers to defeat a levy that he fears would lead to an exodus of wealth. A technology mecca, California has more billionaires than any other US state — a few hundred, by some estimates. About half its personal income tax revenue, a financial backbone in the nearly US$350 billion budget, comes from the top 1 percent of earners. A large healthcare union is attempting to place a proposal before
RSS