Epic Gas ends in the red

Epic Gas has ended the year in the red posting a fourth quarter loss of $16.2m and a full-year loss of $23m.

The Singapore-based LPG carrier operator saw revenue increase 53\% year-on-year to $33.3m thanks to a larger fleet.

However, it was impacted by an impairment charge on the value of its fleet of $11.5m and higher operating costs related to its larger fleet.

“Weak cargo markets, geopolitical turmoil, substantial deliveries and dramatic falls in commodity prices all played a part in pushing daily rates down to 10 year lows,” Epic said.

“The largest declines have been seen amongst vessels 5,000cbm and below, and with markets in Asia demonstrating particular weakness.

“In 2014, markets west of the Suez Canal have outperformed markets in Asia, in line with historical trends.

“The weak time charter market in 2014 was characterized not just by falling rates, but also by a paucity of tenders as downward price pressure in the underlying propane, butane and petrochemical markets impacted trading activity.

“As commodity prices found a floor in late Q4 2014, time charter activity returned to the market, thus meaningfully reducing Epic Gas’s spot exposure from the highs of the third quarter.”

Epic said the increase in activity, which has continued into the first quarter of 2015, has enabled it to improve its time charter cover to about 50\% of 2015 calendar days at an average rate of about $9,200 per day.

Epic said global seaborne LPG and petrochemical trade in 2014 was up 8\% to 69mt, of which it carried 2mt of LPG, or about 3\% of the global trade.

Including newbuildings, the shipowner now controls a fleet of 47 fully pressurised gas carriers.

Epic was formed in January 2013 by the union of Pacific Basin spin-off Epic Shipping and Diamantis Pateras Maritime offshoot Pantheon.

source:www.tradewindsnews.com