A crash in revenue and a loss on a vessel sale pushed Seanergy Maritime deeper into the red in the first quarter of 2012.
Restis-controlled Seanergy saw its bottom line slip to $6.37m below zero, down from a $1.53m deficit last time around.
Christina Anagnostara, CFO of the shipowner, says a particularly unfavorable dry-bulk market was largely to blame for the weaker showing which saw revenue lighten by one third.
A non-cash loss of $2.3m was also included in the final number linked to the disposal of the 38,632-dwt African Zebra (built 1985).
Tweaked for one-off items the company booked a loss of $4.00m.
Dale Ploughman, CEO of Seanergy, said: “The BDI has already risen by 60% since the lows seen in February and we believe that the second half of the year will be a little stronger.
“We expect that higher port congestion and reduced average vessel speed will contribute to the restriction of vessel supply which may, lead to considerable volatility in freight rates.
“On the demand side, the inventory cycle should lead to a need for raw material re-stocking, while ton mile demand is likely to increase as more dry bulk commodities will start being sourced from places such as the African continent, and even North America.”
He adds a near halving of newbuilding orders in the quarter is encouraging, but stresses it would be better if newbuildings were ignored altogether.
Ploughman added: The vessels’ delivery schedule will start dropping off from 2013 onwards, as this year is likely to mark the peak in newbuilding deliveries.
“Faster economic growth, changes in trade patterns and increased scrapping activity will speed up the absorption of excess tonnage but only if owners do not place new orders.
“As market expectations are currently very low, we believe that such developments would have the capacity to lead to a significant pick-up in freight rates.”
Having secured fresh cash with a capital injection from Restis and reworked its loan repayments, Ploughman says Seanergy is in a position to add extra ships to its fleet during the downturn.
