Nordic Tankers not out of the woods

(Aug 28 2009)

Nordic Tankers blamed its negative result for first half of this year on the negative developments in the global economy and the consequent decline in freight rates.
The result was a loss of $2.8 mill, before the reversal of $0.7 mill concerning transactions made by the previous board.

In 1H09, the market value of the company's ships fell sharply and the board has therefore considered it appropriate to write down the value of its fleet by $25.8 mill. Thus the bottom line for 1H09 came in at minus $27.9 mill after tax.
The board said that it had lowered its expectations for the whole year to between minus $32 and $36 mill, of which operations were expected to contribute negatively by between minus $6 and $10 mill.

The company's ceo Jens Pontoppidan said that after a brief rebound early this year, Nordic Tankers was seriously hit by falling rates in the product tanker market.
"Unfortunately, the rates remain very low and with the uncertainty still plaguing the global economy, we have found it necessary to lower expectations for 2009 as a whole," he said.

He also said that the board would continue to work actively to implement the strategic plan, which was presented at the Annual General Meeting in April 2009.
Nordic Tankers owns all or part of 10 ships with an average age of only 2.6 years. The company has currently no vessels on order and has no plans to order any in the near future. All the ships operate in pools with established partners.