Shanghai Port Q3 net down 30 pct

News was prepared under the information support of Online Daily Newspaper on Hellenic and international Shipping "Hellenic Shipping News".

31 Oct 2009

Shanghai International Port (Group) Co , China's biggest port operator, posted a 30 percent fall in its third quarter earnings as global trade showed no clear signs of recovery. China's exports have been falling from year-earlier levels since last November when trade slumped after the surprise failure of Lehman Brothers.
But China could see annual export growth again by the end of the year as a result of the government's domestic stimulus and a recovery in international demand, the country's commerce ministry has said.
The port operator, whose facilities sit at the mouth of China's busy Yangtze River, earned 1.02 billion yuan ($149.4 million) in the third quarter, down from 1.45 billion yuan a year earlier, it said in its quarterly financial report.
Net profit for the first nine months also fell 30 percent, to 2.73 billion yuan, because the port handled less containers as trade volume dropped amid the global financial crisis, it said in a statement.
But operating costs did not fall in line with volume during the period, it added.
Official data showed China's container throughput came to 88.97 million TEUs in the first three quarters, equivalent to 92.2 percent of the year-ago level, while volume handled in the first half was only 89 percent of the same period in 2008.
"We have seen signs of recovery from the statistics and Q3 GDP is pretty good," said Yu Jianjun with Huatai Securities. "If the trend continues as it well may, Shanghai Port will return to growth as early as in Q4."
Shanghai International Port's shares fell 10.6 percent during the third quarter, more than the 5.8 percent fall of the benchmark index .SSEC during the same period.
Its shares closed up 0.6 percent on Friday.

Source: Reuters