Higher Cargo Volumes Push Finnlines’ Earnings Up

Finnish RoRo and passenger shipping company Finnlines reported an increase in its earnings in the third quarter of 2017, mainly driven by higher cargo volumes.

The company’s revenue for the third quarter of 2017 was at EUR 145.2 million, rising by 11.4 percent from the EUR 130.4 million reported in the same quarter a year earlier.

Cargo volumes improved during the third quarter increasing the revenue. Also, cargo-related bunker surcharge has been higher since respective fuel costs have remained on a higher level.

Shipping and Sea Transport Services generated revenue amounting to EUR 140.1 million, up from EUR 125.1 million, while Port Operations’ revenue reached EUR 10.6 million, up from EUR 9.7 million.

The company’s result for the quarter ended September 30 reached EUR 32.5 million, up from EUR 30.3 million seen in the same quarter a year earlier.

“The third quarter of 2017 was the best ever quarter of Finnlines’ history,” Emanuele Grimaldi, President and CEO of Finnlines, said, adding that the recovery of Finland’s economy “is reflected in our export and import volumes which have continued to grow over 10 per cent.”

For the first nine months of 2017, the company’s revenue increased by 12 percent to EUR 404.5 million, from a revenue of EUR 361.1 million reported in the nine months ended September 30, 2016.

The result for the period was at EUR 67.9 million, against a result of EUR 60.9 million seen a year earlier.

Shipping and Sea Transport Services’s revenue was at EUR 389.6 million, mainly due to higher cargo volumes in most trades, while Port Operations’ revenue reached EUR 31.5 million due to increased external and internal cargo handling activities.

“Finnlines has continued to invest in its fleet to become a more environmentally friendly and a more sustainable shipping company,” Grimaldi informed.

As the company completed its EUR 100 million Environmental Technology Investment Programme to reduce the sulphur emissions by over 90 percent since the start of the programme, Finnlines launched a new investment programme, the Energy Efficiency and Emission Reduction Investment Programme.

Through the new EUR 70 million investment programme, the company will lengthen four of its Breeze series ro-ro vessels with options for two more ships.