Clipper expects decline in earnings
SHIPPING: One of the worlds largest dry cargo shipping companies, the Danish based Clipper, expects to leave 2009 with less of a surplus than expected. 2009 will be a very challenging year with a turbulent marked, the shipping company's top executive Frank G. Jensen.
"We are still making a lot of money and we are expecting to leave 2009 with a solid profit. It will not be a record year, but it is hard so say how much the final result will have gone down with," says top executive of Clipper Frank G. Jensen to Dagbladet Boersen.
Clipper ended 2008 with quite a reasonable profit despite the collapse of the dry cargo market. This is due to the fact that the shipping company managed to earn a fair deal while the rates were record high pre to the collapse
"Even though the fourth quarter caused a decrease we still ended with the largest surplus ever. We handed out high bonuses in January, so our employees are very happy", says Frank G. Jensen.
Frank G. Jensen was one of the few who last year predicted that the boom in the rates almost was too good to be true, so even though the expects that 2009 will be decent, he doesn't believe the rates will exceed to such high a level again.
"It will be a very turbulent marked. We are working at levels which historically seem reasonable and the way it looks like at the moment this will be sufficient to make it work.
We will be lying at relatively low levels and six, nine or twenty-four months will pass before we begin to see a more positive marked. But I don't believe that we will see the kinds of heights we saw just 12 months ago. That time has passed", says Frank G. Jensen to the newspaper.
At present time Clipper has ensured orders covering 60 percent of the turnover, but due to the present circumstances, whether the contracts will in fact be carried through is far from certain.
Source: maritimedanmark.dk
