Yangzijiang Shipbuilding Q1 bottom line falls 11% to 595.1m yuan

MAINBOARD-listed shipbuilder Yangzijiang (YZJ) Shipbuilding recorded a 10.9 per cent fall in net profit to 595.1 million yuan (S$124.9 million) for the first quarter mainly due to the appreciation of Chinese renminbi against the US dollar and the increase in raw material prices, it said late Thursday.

Earnings per share shrank to 14.99 fen from 17.42 fen in the preceding year.

Despite the fall in YZJ's net profit for the quarter, revenue expanded 6 per cent to 4.96 billion yuan from the preceding year.

This came despite the nine vessels delivered in Q1 2018 being less than the 14 delivered in Q1 2017.

YZJ said that in spite of fewer vessels delivered in this quarter, "revenue contribution in Q1 2018 by shipbuilding business of 2.934 billion yuan is slightly higher than that of same quarter last year, mainly due to progressive construction of more larger-sized container ships in this quarter".

Revenue generated by other shipbuilding-related businesses, such as shipping logistics and chartering, and ship design services, was 88.1 million yuan in the first quarter compared to 64.1 million yuan in the year-ago period, due to higher charter income.

Net asset value per share edged up to 6.67 yuan as at March 31, from 6.52 yuan three months ago.

No dividend was declared for the quarter.

YZJ Shipbuilding shares ended S$0.01 or 0.9 per cent higher at S$1.18 on Thursday.