Wisdom Marine Group (慧洋海運集團), one of Taiwan’s major bulk shippers, yesterday announced a plan to sell two handysize dry bulk carriers, as the company aims to improve its resource allocation.
The two vessels, which are due to be delivered in 2016, cost the company US$50 million.
The company’s plan could generate at least US$5 million for Wisdom Marine, which the company said it expected to receive in several installments by 2016.
Wisdom reported a pretax profit of NT$1.14 billion (US$38.5 million) for the first 10 months of the year, or NT$2.75 per share, down 33.75 percent from the same period last year. Consolidated sales for the period stood at NT$6.88 billion, down 1.93 percent year-on-year.
The bulk shipper ordered the two vessels last year at a relatively reasonable price, as the Baltic Dry Index (BDI) — a measure of shipping costs for commodities — had fallen below the 1,000-point level.
Following improvements in market conditions in recent months, there are signs that more shippers plan to order new vessels in the years ahead, and Wisdom Marine said it felt it had an opportunity to make a profit from selling the two vessels.
Wisdom Marine still has orders for more than 30 vessels which are scheduled for delivery from the second quarter of next year.
Shares in Wisdom were up 0.6 percent at NT$33.4 yesterday.
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