In a presentation tied to its third-quarter earnings report Yangzijiang Shipbuilding said bulker and containership construction will continue to be its core focus but believes the offshore, demolition and steel fabrication segments will drive growth going forward.
The company hopes to emerge from the downturn a year earlier than its competitors by shifting gears and supplementing revenue streams from its shipyards with contributions from financial investments, property development and logistics.
In a presentation connected to Yangzijiang’s third quarter earnings report it told investors who trade its Singapore-listed shares that the plan is to “evolve into an integrated marine service provider” on the heels of a period in which it received no new orders at all.
The shipbuilder watched its gross profit plummet by nearly 10% to RMB 1.1bn ($170.2m) as revenue fell to RMB 3.6bn from RMB 3.7bn in the three months to 30 September year-on-year and ended the quarter with an orderbook worth approximately $3.6bn.
Of the eight vessel cessations suffered in the second quarter it finished three and delivered the units to new buyers in October. The remainder “may be chartered to customers after completion via a finance lease model for a tenure ranging eight to ten years”, it said.
Of the 75 ships in its current orderbook the group’s latest regulatory filing indicated that 40 are containerships and 35 are bulkers. Thirteen of the liner contracts are for units of around 4,250-teu and the majority of the dry deals call for ships in excess of 45,000-dwt.
In 2009 Yangzijiang’s backlog included 77 bulkers and 78 boxships- contracts that were worth around $6.9bn in total at the time. The totals have fallen ever since so a recent decision to halt production at one of its three yards may not come as a surprise.
