Asia’s SITC International Holdings to buy more container ships as profit rises

Hong Kong-headquartered SITC International Holdings Company Limited, an Asian shipping logistics company, said the company will continue to buy container vessels and containers, and invest in logistics projects, “as and when appropriate.”

The company expects that the internal financial resources and bank borrowings will be sufficient to meet the necessary funding requirements.

Revenue of the Group for the six months ended 30 June rose by 28% to approximately $1.66bn from $1.3bn for the same period last year.

The Group’s profit for the six months ended 30 June was around $633.4m, representing an increase of approximately $280.6m over the profit of approximately $352.8m for the first half of 2024.

“Save as disclosed, the company does not have any future plans for significant investments or capital assets as at the date of this announcement,” the shipping company said Friday in its interim results for the six months ended 30 June. 

As of 30 June, the Group operated a fleet of 119 vessels with a total capacity of 185,787 TEU, comprised of 101 self-owned (165,083 TEU) and 18 chartered vessels (20,704 TEU), with an average age of 9.4 years.

Of these 119 vessels, 95 were of less than 2,000 TEU, and 24 were of 2,000 TEU to 3,000 TEU.

Meanwhile, its wholly-owned subsidiary SITC Shipowning, a company principally engaged in the business of vessel holding, exercised the options on April 29 for the construction of two additional container vessels at the aggregate consideration of US$57.96m.

The shipbuilder Huanghai Shipbuilding Co., Ltd. will construct two 1,800 TEU container vessels with dwt of approximately 24,000 tons for the Group. The builder is beneficially owned as to approximately 80.43% by the Huanghai Shipbuilding Co., Ltd, according to SITC’s statement on April 29.

The delivery of the two option vessels is expected to be made on or before 31 March 2028 and 31 May 2028, respectively.

The contract price for each of the option vessels is US$28.98m and the aggregate contract price for the two option vessels to be constructed is US$57.96m.

The contract price was determined after “arm’s length negotiations” between the parties, SITC said, with reference to the market prices for the construction of new vessels of similar size in the open market as determined by the company’s directors.