Seaspan records first quarter loss

Seaspan records first quarter loss    Seaspan Corp. had a first quarter net loss of $36.6 million compared to net profit of $24.2 million in the same 2009 period.
   Revenue was $80.4 million for the quarter ended March 31, compared to $63.1 million in the same 2009 period
   The company “continued to perform as expected with our entire fleet on time charters with leading liner companies, which are primarily long-term,' said Gerry Wang, chief executive officer. 'We also continued to grow our fleet and contracted revenue streams and have taken delivery of five vessels year-to-date. All five vessels commenced long-term charters as planned.”
   Seaspan owns containerships and charters them pursuant to primarily long-term fixed-rate charters. Seaspan’s contracted fleet of 68 containerships comprises 47 containerships in operation and 21 containerships to be delivered over the next 24 months.
   In February 2010, the company completed a transaction with a wholly owned subsidiary, then entered into a transaction with an affiliate of a leading publicly traded Chinese bank for the sale and leaseback of one of its 13,100-TEU vessels for up to $150 million. Seaspan said the transaction, which enhances its capital structure, involves a vessel that it had previously contracted to purchase from Hyundai Heavy Industries Co. Ltd. Upon delivery, the wholly owned subsidiary of Seaspan Corp. will charter the vessel and, through an inter-company operating charter, we will continue to time-charter the vessel to COSCO Container Lines Co. Ltd. in accordance with the terms of the original 12-year time charter.
   One of Seaspan’s ships, the CSCL Hamburg ran aground on Dec. 31, 2009 in the Gulf of Aqaba en route to Singapore. The company said no personal injuries or pollution resulted from the incident, but that the ship was out of service 100 days, returning to operation on April 12. Although the vessel was not expected to undergo its next scheduled five-year survey until 2013, the company chose to combine the repairs with an earlier dry docking to achieve savings and defer the next scheduled dry dock to 2015.