Wisdom Marine Lines Co (慧洋海運), the nation’s largest dry bulk shipper, on Friday reported a pretax profit of NT$688 million (US$24.83 million) for last month, up 880 percent from a year earlier on the back of rising freight rates, the company said.
Cumulative pretax profit was NT$3.79 billion for the first eight months of the year, compared with a net loss of NT$340 million a year earlier, it said.
Earnings per share were NT$5.08 for the eight-month period, Wisdom added.
Although July and August are usually a low season for bulk shipping, freight rates continued rising throughout this summer, the shipper said in a statement.
“We expect rates to stay strong through the end of this year or even into early next year, as seaport congestion is likely to persist in the near term,” Wisdom said.
The firm adjusted the contracts for 38 of its vessels in the first two quarters of this year, it said.
The average rates have risen 37 percent and 48 percent in the respective quarters, Wisdom added.
The shipper said it would adjust the contracts for another 31 vessels in the second half of this year, based on the expectation that the average rates would grow 88 percent in the third quarter and 120 percent in the fourth quarter.
In June, Wisdom had said that it expects increases of 22 percent and 32 percent in the respective quarters.
For the whole of this year, Wisdom forecast that the average rates for its 69 vessels with new contracts would improve by 71 percent, boosting its revenue by 20 percent.
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