zoomImage Courtesy: Norden

Danish shipping company Dampskibsselskabet NORDEN A/S (Norden) recorded a full-year loss of USD 285 million, cutting the USD 416 million loss reported in 2014 for almost a half.

The company’s EBIT was in line with recently announced expectations reaching USD 282 million loss.

According to Norden, the results were impacted by write-down and provision for onerous contracts totalling USD 340 million, especially with respect to historically miserable market in dry cargo.

However, thanks to a strong tanker market the company’s earnings were 27% above 1-year T/C-rates.

Norden’s underlying operating result for the year was USD 55 million with cash flows from operations reaching USD 77 million.

”2015 was yet another horror year in dry cargo, and Norden put a large number of tools to use to mitigate the effect of a historically miserable dry cargo market. We have actively adjusted our dry cargo exposure to the increasingly challenging market conditions and at the same time taken advantage of a strong tanker market to generate record results with the tanker fleet,” says Norden’s CEO Jan Rindbo in comment.

During 2015, the company sold 9 vessels thus reducing the exposure to dry cargo market in 2016 and 2017 by 24%.

According to Rindbo, the efforts have paid off, and Norden was able to create positive cash flows from operations and generate earnings significantly above the market in both sectors.

” We will continue doing so in 2016, where we expect a continued very difficult dry cargo market and a good tanker market,” he added.

With respect to the expectations for 2016, the company expects the adjusted results for the year to range between USD -60 to USD 30 million.