HOEGH REPORTS $36 MILLION LOSS FOR 1999

HOEGH REPORTS $36 MILLION LOSS FOR 1999    The diversified Norwegian shipping group Leif Hoegh reported a net loss of $36 million for 1999, compared to a net profit of $50 million in the previous year.
   The deficit was caused by poorer operating results and book losses on the sale of shares in Bona Shipholding, the tanker operator.
   Group operating profit for the year was $23 million, 68 percent lower than the 1998 result of $71 million.
   Group net freight revenues decreased by 3 percent, to $489 million, from $505 million in 1998.
   Hoegh reported lower operating profits from its car-carrying unit HUAL, from gas shipping and from its liner shipping arm Hoegh Lines. The group’s dry bulk activities had a marginally higher operating profit of $7 million for 1999 and its reefer shipping business Unicool reported unchanged annual operating losses of $9 million.
   The HUAL car-carrying business continues to be the main profit contributor of the Hoegh group, with operating profits of $37 million.
   Hoegh said that 1999 was difficult for shipping in general and bunker costs increased substantially during the second half of the year.
   The Norwegian group said that Hoegh Lines’ results were influenced by low levels of liner and open-hatch cargoes from North America to Southeast Asia. The group’s Pacific Commerce Line business suffered from low exports of forest products from the West Coast of North America to Japan. Pacific Commerce Line ended its Chile/Far East service last year.