Jutha stays on course to meeting target

Managing director Chanet Phenchart said yesterday that the company sees higher freight and charter hire rates from renewal of some chartered vessels.

He said the rev¬enue is expected to increase by 15 per cent next year following its purchasing of a new vessel, which will join the fleet in August next year.

Jutha posted net profit of Bt16.81 million in the second quarter, a drop of 42.60 per cent on year, but its secondquarter revenue increased to Bt170 million from Bt150 million in the same period last year.

Net profit from operations in the first half of the year was Bt66.46 million, a 47.7percent drop compared with Bt126.54 million over the same period last year. Its revenue of Bt333 million also showed a decline from Bt383 million in the same period last year.

The company forecasts that its revenue in the third and fourth quarters would be similar to the second quarter.

Jutha has already signed contracts for five charter vessels at Baltic Dry Freight Index (BDI) of US$7,600 (Btt257,000) to $8,000 per vessel per day, while its oneliner shipping service also signed a contract at BDI of $14,000 per vessel per day.

The liner shipping vessel contributes a gross profit margin of $10,000 per vessel, while charter vessel contributes gross profit margin at  $5,000 to $6,000 per vessel, according to Chanet.

Though the liner shipping vessel contributes a higher margin, the company has no plan to increase the number of liner shipping vessels to avoid high operating costs.

Chanet said that the BDI prices are lucrative at the moment, and this rate will continue for the next 23 years due to increasing demand.

The company estimates that the BDI rate this year will be $8,600 per vessel per day.