MISC has seen its fourth quarter net profit drop by almost 25% despite the strong tanker market, figures released Friday show.

The Malaysian shipowner said net income was MYR 752.4m ($182m) versus the MYR 991.6m seen in the last three months of 2014.

Revenue for the quarter was MYR 3.3bn, a year-on-year increase of close to 45%. The cost of sales showed a 41% increase to MYR 2.3bn.

However, the Kuala Lumpur-listed company’s results in 2014 were bolstered by a one-off gain of MYR 654m from an asset disposal.

MISC’s energy related shipping division reported revenue of MYR 2bn, which was 31.8% higher than the year-ago quarter of MYR 1.5bn, mainly due to improved freight rates.

However, MISC said a smaller fleet of operating vessels and lower earning days caused declines in the revenue at its chemical and LNG segments respectively.

MISC’s other energy business achieved revenue of just over MYR 1bn, which was 62.4% higher than that seen a year ago.

It attributed the improvement to the recognition of construction revenue for a finance lease asset under construction at its offshore business and higher revenue from ongoing projects in heavy engineering division.

However, the weaker fourth quarter did not stop the company posting a 9% year-on-year increase in full-year net profit to MYR 2.5bn.

Looking ahead, MISC said its petroleum shipping segment is expected to continue to enjoy the benefits of the market strength seen in 2015 into 2016, barring any material cutback in global oil production.

“The steady performance of the LNG shipping and offshore business segments in 2015 will continue into the next financial year on the back of the portfolio of long term contracts both business segments have in place,” MISC said.

“However, the outlook and prospects of the upstream oil and gas industry is projected to remain poor with the prolonged weakness in oil price.

“The cutback in exploration and production activities will continue to weigh heavily on the offshore construction activities for the heavy engineering segment.

“On a positive note, the segment’s marine repair business is expected to perform steadily and to a limited extent, cushion the weak performance of offshore construction business.”