Shipping firms eye rosier future

Furthermore, the Vietnam Maritime Administration recently announced a draft to replace the Ministry of Transport’s Circular No.54 concerning the pricing of container handling and other associated services at Vietnamese seaports.

The draft proposes a 10 per cent increase in the price of container handling services effective from January 1, 2024 in various ports including Haiphong, Ho Chi Minh City and the Cai Mep-Thi Vai seaport complex in the southern province of Ba Ria-Vung Tau.

In addition, the draft proposes terminals able to receive ships capable of transporting more than 160,000DWT can impose a 10 per cent additional increase for loading and unloading services, meaning that those terminals could increase fees by as much as 20 per cent.

As a result of these developments, shipping stocks have been actively traded on the stock exchange of late, with several firms witnessing steady increases in share prices in recent trading sessions.

Hanoi-based securities firm VNDIRECT JSC has predicted that Hai An Transport and Stevedoring JSC, trading under the ticker symbol HAH, will improve, particularly as we head into 2024. In the first half of this year, Hai An achieved revenue amounting to $53.4 million with a post-tax profit of $9.1 million, down 19 and 50 per cent respectively on-year.

VNDIRECT's forecast suggests that Hai An's 2023 profit would fall 25 per cent on-year, before posting a 25 per cent jump in 2024, and its post-tax profit would total $19 million this year, increasing to $21.7 million next year.

The company currently operates 11 container ships, with a total carrying capacity of approximately 16,000TEUs, accounting for nearly 40 per cent of the carrying capacity of Vietnam’s entire shipping container industry. The company plans to receive four new container ships of 1,800TEUs each over the next 12 months, bringing the capacity of their fleet to more than 23,000TEUs.

Gemadept Corporation, under the ticker GMD, saw $76.5 million in consolidated revenue in the first half of 2023, down 2 per cent on-year, and $83.2 million in post-tax profit, a three-fold increase for the same period last year. The strong profit growth came as the shipper registered more than $78.6 million in financial income from a capital transfer deal at Nam Hai Dinh Vu Port in the first six months of the year.

SSI Securities expects Gemadept to handle 1.4 million TEUs of containers in the second half of 2023, up 9.5 per cent compared to the first half. Its total weight load for the year is estimated to be 2.9 million TEUs, down just 6 per cent on year. In 2024, the figure is expected to reach 3.5 million TEUs, a jump of 22 per cent.

On September 6, the GMD ticker reached an historic peak of VND63,900 ($2.7), showing a 46.2 per cent jump since the start of the year.

Vietnam Ocean Shipping JSC, trading under the VOS ticker, earned $67.2 million in revenue in the first half of 2023, an increase of more than $16.5 million on-year. However, its post-tax profit, fell $10.1 million for the same period to just $3.12.

An Binh Securities in Hanoi has suggested that the demand from major export markets in the United States, Europe, and China will bottom out in the second half of 2023 and then gradually start to recover.

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