Seaspan delays ship deliveries

Seaspan delays ship deliveries    Seaspan Corp. said it is delaying delivery on about half of the ships in its order book.
   Reporting its quarterly results last week, the company noted it accepted delivery of two new vessels in the three months period ending Sept. 30, the MOL Eminence and CSCL Manzanillo. It said it had exercised options to defer the delivery date for 11 of the vessels it has contracted to purchase. Deliveries will be delayed anywhere from two to 15 months. The company has also deferred the delivery date for two additional vessels by nine months from the dates originally agreed to under the original shipbuilding contracts.
   With the delivery of six container vessels in 2009 the company now has a fleet of 41 vessels, all of which are on long-term charter. It has 27 ships in its order book, all of which also have charterers arranged.
   Seaspan said it had a third quarter net loss of $66 million compared to a net loss of $5.1 million for the comparable quarter last year. Net loss includes unrealized losses of $92.6 million and $24.7 million from interest rate swaps for the current and comparable quarters respectively.
   The company had revenue of $74.1 million for the quarter ended Sept. 30 compared to $57.6 million for the comparable prior year period.
   Gerry Wang, chief executive officer, said the company had closing of the second tranche of a $200 million preferred share issuance in October, which improved the company’s capital structure and strengthened its financial flexibility.
   “Based on cash retained from operations combined with secured committed financing, we have arranged for nearly all of the capital needed to finance our contracted fleet growth,” he said.