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He pointed out that the company last year had been to a large extent a battle in the context of the market downturn. "The year began with relatively high freight rates, which allowed LAS to start operating profitably early in the year, but by the end of the year, rates had fallen by 30 percent. On average, the decline was observed in all sectors of the shipping industry, including the small and medium-sized oil tanker segment, where the LK is operating, which was a difficult year, "said Kirkups.
According to him, the company will also be difficult in 2017. "We will be in the same betting sector in the last six months, and at the same time, after 2018, the number of newly built ships entering the transport market will drop significantly. As a result, we anticipate that after 2018 we will already experience freight growth rates, and of course the market may be affected by many factors beyond our control, such as economic growth, market developments oil tankers, "explained the head of the LC.
It was asked when the company could resume its profits, in the hope of seeing them already in the 2018 accounting data. "I do not want to make any solid predictions, but we have the feeling that we have made the right decisions about badet revaluation and our ability to respond to market changes, "added Kirkups.
Speaking of oil price fluctuations, he said there was no significant impact on them. "This has a small impact on bunkering services.As you know, when oil prices rise, fueling prices also increase and sometimes these costs should be borne." At the same time, if oil prices are rising, oil demand will fall slightly and, as a result, the volume of oil shipped by ships may decline, but this is not a decisive regularity, as many other factors affect freight rates " said the chairman of the board of directors of the company.
At the same time, LK plans do not buy or sell ships at the present time. "We have 16 vessels and we do not intend to sell them, and for the moment we are not in a financial position to buy additional vessels, and our strategy is to increase the number of vessels in our technical management. The capacity of the ship management company LK "LSC Shipmanagement" currently manages about 30 vessels (..) Currently, LSC Shipmanagement manages 16 of our ships and seven ships are transferred to its technical direction. At the end of the year, this figure is expected to reach 25 or more vessels, while at the same time, all the additional ships are from companies in the Vitol group, but we also want to attract Therefore, our goal is to manage 30 vessels by the end of 2018 and further increase that number, "said Kirkups.
It has already been said that the LK group had achieved a turnover of 90.682 million euros last year, up 8.6% from 2015, while the losses of the group were multiplied by three to reach 20,987 million euros.
The company handles freight transport in all the world's seas and oceans, trains and retrieves crews that comply with international conventions, and offers technical vessel management for its own vessels and other transport vessels. LK shares quote "Nasdaq Riga" on the official list.
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