Regional Container Lines PCL : Financial Results as at 30 September 2016

14 Nov 2016

In 3Q2016 the over supply in the container shipping and the weak global economy have significantly impacted freight rates. RCL's freight rate decreased 21.3% year-on-year, a further 8.8% decrease from 2Q2016, although the company has made some progress on volume adjustment. RCL's Carrier Owned Container (COC) registered a large increase in lifting of 18% year-on-year to 272,522 TEUs while its Shipper Owned Container (SOC) declined by 7% year-on-year to 188,498 TEUs, resulting in the total increased by 6% year-on-year to 461,020 TEUs.

As a result of historically low freight rate, the total turnover before exchange difference, gain on sale of assets and unrealized gain on derivatives for 3Q2016 was THB 2,538 million, a 21% decrease year-on-year. With our effort to reduce the cost, total cost of freight and operation in 3Q2016 was well managed and reflected by a decrease of 3% at THB 2,751 million as compared to the same quarter the year before. However, this was inadequate to cushion the drop in freight rate. RCL thus reported its third quarter 2016 results, posting a net loss of THB 455 million, versus a net loss of THB 35 million in 3Q2015. Excluding gain on sales of fixed assets, operating loss was THB 456 million. The exchange gain for the period was THB 22 million, versus a gain of THB 4 million in 3Q2015. In 3Q2016 the group disposed of some old boxes, which translated into a disposal gain of THB 1 million as compared with a disposal gain of THB 5 million in 3Q2015. We expect this low freight rate to have reached its bottom.

In spite of all these difficult circumstances, RCL is pleased to announce that it has won 'The Best Container Liner For Small And Medium Liners Group Award' accorded by the Thai Minister of Commerce on 21 September 2016, at an Award ceremony held in conjunction with the Thailand International Logistics Fair in Bangkok, organized by the Thai National Shipper Council.

About RCL

Founded in 1979, RCL is a Thai based container shipping line. Listed on the Thai Stock Exchange since 1988, its core business is in the carriage of Shipper owned containers (SOC) and its own Carrier container containers (COC) in a service network that is fully Asia centric. RCL currently owns and operates a fleet of 46 vessels with sizes ranging between 500 TEUs to 3316 TEUs. It also has a fleet of 71,723 TEUs to support its own COC carriage as well. RCL operates a network of 64 offices made up of both owned and agency partner offices to support its operations. Today, RCL is recognised as amongst the leading SOC and Intra Asian operator by both peers and customers alike.

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