Fleet Growth Pushes Up Seaspan’s Profit

Addition of eight containerships in 2015 has seen Seaspan Corporation’s reported profit for 2015 hit USD 199.3 million, up from the previous year’s USD 131.2 million.

The Hong Kong-based company’s revenue rose as well by 15.3% to USD 218.5 million and 14.2% to USD 819 million for the quarter and year ended December 31, 2015, respectively, over the same periods in 2014.

These increases were ascribed to the delivery of eight vessels in 2015 and the full period contribution of six vessels that delivered in 2014. According to Seaspan, the increases were partially offset by lower average charter rates for vessels which were on short-term charters and an increase in scheduled and unscheduled off-hire.

“During 2015, we achieved an important milestone by growing Seaspan’s operating and managed fleet to over 100 vessels, complementing our successful execution of the company’s stable and predictable business model.

“With the delivery of two 10000 TEU class and six 14000 TEU class state-of-the-art containerships in 2015, Seaspan achieved strong revenue and earnings per share growth for both the year and fourth quarter. We also continued to enter into attractive fixed-rate long-term contracts with high creditworthy counterparties, ending the year with future contracted revenues of nearly USD 6 billion,” says Gerry Wang, Chief Executive Officer, Co-Chairman and Co-Founder of Seaspan.

The owner and manager of containerships also raised USD 1.4 billion of proceeds from capital and financing transactions in 2015, as it seeks to capitalize on “attractive growth opportunities.”

At the beginning of 2015, Seaspan had 77 vessels in operation and with the delivery of eight newbuilding vessels during the year its operating fleet reached a total of 85 vessels.