Israel’s cargo shipping company ZIM Integrated Shipping Services has reached an agreement with its creditors to reschedule payments of USD 115 million, during a period of up to 12 months starting from September 30, 2016.
With this deal, announced as part of ZIM’s financial results for the three-month period ended June 30, 2016, the company said that it maintains its financial stability and will continue to develop its growth plan.
During the second quarter of the year, ZIM reported a loss of USD 74 million and positive operating cash flow of USD 17.6 million, compared to positive operating cash flow of USD 86 million for the second quarter of 2015. The company carried 617,000 TEUs during the period, representing a 6.9% increase compared to the first quarter of the year.
ZIM said that the first half of 2016 was characterized by historically low freight rates as the average freight rate per TEU carried was USD 903 in the first half of 2016, reflecting a 24.8% decrease compared to the respective period last year.
As a result of significantly lower freight rates, total revenues in the quarter decreased by 19.8% to USD 611.8 million, compared with USD 762.9 million in the same period last year.
“The very challenging market situation impacts the industry as a whole. Our strategic business plan, focusing on select markets where the company has a competitive advantage, is keeping ZIM in the top of the industry in terms of EBIT margins. The company keeps investing in customer service excellence and on-time delivery to our customers, as evident in a recent first place ranking awarded to ZIM in a schedule reliability performance report,” Rafi Danieli, ZIM’s President and CEO, said.