Aug.06--NEW YORK-listed Seaspan Corp, a major containership lessor, narrowed its second quarter loss to US$6.75 from $34.86 million year on year, providing "normalised" net profits of $131.9 million, an increase of 31.7 per cent, drawn on revenues of $166 million, up 24 per cent.

Nine analysts polled by Thomson Reuters estimated revenue of $167.08 million as and average for the quarter, reported RTTNews.

Seaspan, with principal offices in Hong Kong and Vancouver, but registered in the Marshall Islands, reported that its business "continued to perform as expected. We achieved high utilisation and posted strong results in revenue, normalised net earnings and cash available for distribution," said a company statement.

During the quarter, Seaspan expanded its fleet to 69 ships, averaging five years old, with the delivery of the last of a series of eight vessels with capacities of 13,100 TEU. Seaspan has three other ships on order and its vessel utilisation rate reached 99.4 per cent in the quarter ending June 30.

Seaspan charters ships to carriers including China Shipping, Cosco, CSAV, Hanjin, Hapag-Lloyd, Hyundai, "K" Line, MSC, MOL and Yang Ming.

In response to questions about a possible recovery at analysts' webinar, CEO Gerry Wang said: "We're optimistic. The market is always cyclical. There's ups; there will be downs. When there are downs, there will be ups and we just want to pursue our strategy which is in down market, we fix our ships on short term basis and when market is up, then either we sell them or fix them longer.

"We have the strength in our balance sheet and the cash position to afford to do those things and we're very comfortable with where we are and also going forward," Mr Wang said.

(Source:shippingazette)