Feb.18--COSCO Corporation (Singapore) suffered a net loss for financial year 2015 of S$569.96 million (US$407.49 million) after a 2014 profit of S$20.89 million.
Revenue fell 17 per cent during the same period for the Singapore-listed firm to S$3.52 billion due to lower contributions from shipyard operations, dry bulk shipping and other businesses.
Losses were attributed to low oil prices impacting the offshore industry that feeds its shipbuilding business as well as a weak dry bulk market.
Thus higher costs were incurred because of delayed projects and write-downs of inventory and provisions for impairments, said the company explained.
"Challenging business and operating conditions are likely to persist and even worsen in 2016," said Cosco Corp president Wu Ziheng.
"Our group will capitalise on the downturn to improve our capabilities for long term sustainable growth in our offshore marine engineering and new shipbuilding operations," he said.
As of January the company's orderbook stood at S$8 billion with progressive deliveries up to early 2018.
(Source:shippingazette)