ZIM says it is financially stronger following restructuring

Company is handling fewer containers, but says the average freight rate has improved.    ZIM said it had a net loss in the third quarter of $63 million, compared with a $42 million loss in the corresponding quarter last year, following completion of its debt restricting on July 16.
   But the company said that on a non-GAAP basis, excluding the impact of debt restructuring and other accounting effects, it had earnings before interest, depreciation, taxes and amortization (EBITDA) of $41 million, a $30-million improvement compared to the same period in 2013.
   The company said that its net loss on a non-GAAP basis was $20 million, an improvement of $56 million compared to the same period last year.
   Total revenues in the third quarter were $854 million compared to $900 million in the corresponding quarter last year, and the company said the reduction in revenues reflected the result of terminating the service from Asia to northern Europe, part of its business plan.
   In the U.S., ZIM has been dogged in some ports by repeated protests against Israeli military action in Gaza. The company had problems in Oakland getting cargo loaded and discharged by longshoremen on several calls, though the International Longshore and Warehouse Union has pointed to concerns from its members about the large police presence at demonstrations as the reason for not working ships, not solidarity with the Palestinian cause.
  That may no longer an issue for one string of ZIM ships that operate between the U.S. West Coast and Mediterranean. ZIM has stopped operating its own ships on its Med-Pacific Service (MPS) in favor of chartering slots on a service operated by the German carriers Hapag-Lloyd and Hamburg-Sud.
   But the company faces new protests in the Pacific Northwest where a group of Palestinian supporters are planning a protest later this month.
   The company carried approximately 557,000 TEUs during the quarter, 13-percent fewer than in the corresponding quarter in 2013.
   Average freight rates were $1,281 per TEU, an increase 7 percent, or $79 per TEU, compared to the freight rate a year earlier.
   “In spite of the reduction in revenues and volume of containers carried, ZIM managed to reduce the net loss and recorded an operating profit thanks to the company’s continued streamlining activities, improving the sales and service, combined with the decline in fuel prices (accelerated further after the balance sheet date), reducing activities of unprofitable lines, and increase in freight rates in certain lines,” the company said in a press release.
   ZIM said its $3.4 billion debt restructuring, which included a debt to equity swap of $1.4 billion, “significantly improved the company’s financial strength and brought the company to report positive equity. This, together with the deletion of the ‘going concern’ qualification already in Q2 2014 reports, placed ZIM in a favorable position to ride the wave of global economic recovery.”