Pan Ocean(028670), on a consolidation financial statements basis, said in a filing on the 31st that it was tentatively tallied to have posted sales of 1.9137 trillion won and operating profit of 193.7 billion won in the second quarter of this year.
According to the Financial Supervisory Service's electronic disclosure system, sales rose 47.9% and operating profit increased 57.4% from a year earlier. Compared with the previous quarter, they were up 26.8% and 37.4%, respectively.
Cumulative first-half sales were 3.4226 trillion won and operating profit was 334.6 billion won. Year over year, sales increased 27.4% and operating profit rose 41.6%.
Pan Ocean said stronger shipping market conditions, enhanced market responsiveness, and increased sales in the grain business drove the earnings improvement.
By business institutional sector, the dry bulk institutional sector was affected by the full-fledged South American grain season and increased coal cargo volumes as a substitute for liquefied natural gas (LNG) due to the Middle East conflict. With the Baltic Dry Index (BDI) up 88% from a year earlier, operating profit rose 59.8% to 84.7 billion won.
In the tanker institutional sector, operating profit jumped 165.7% to 43.7 billion won as geopolitical risks in the Middle East and Australia's import demand increased.
In the LNG business, Pan Ocean noted that after completing delivery of all vessels and establishing a revenue structure based on long-term contracts, operating profit came in at 49.7 billion won, up 33.6% from a year earlier.
By contrast, in the container ship institutional sector, despite higher freight rates and increased cargo volumes, rising costs such as cargo expenses and charter rates pushed operating profit down 5.2% year over year to 14.5 billion won.