Danaos’ earnings up in quarter, down for year

Danaos’ earnings up in quarter, down for year New York-listed Greek ship chartering company Danaos Corp.’s fourth quarter net income jumped 31.5 percent to $30.6 million, although its earnings for the whole of 2006 slipped 17.7 percent to $101.1 million.
   Danaos’ quarterly operating income rose 26.1 percent to $37.7 million with revenue in the period up 22.2 percent to '69.2 million. For the year, the Piraeus-based company’s operating income improved 3 percent to $148 million while revenue gained 1.7 percent to $245.6 million.
   Danaos owns a fleet of 30 containerships aggregating 134,631 TEUs. During the three-month period, it acquired and took delivery of the three secondhand 4,814-TEU vessels on sale and lease back to the A.P. Moller-Maersk Group for five years each. It also added to its fleet with the newly built 9,580-TEU “CSCL Le Havre,” one of 19 containerships aggregating 102,324 TEUs scheduled to be delivered up to 2010.
   “The fourth quarter of 2006 was particularly important for Danaos since it marks the listing of our shares on the New York Stock Exchange,” said John Coustas, Danaos’ chief executive officer.
   “During the fourth quarter of 2006 the market experienced relative weakness as some overcapacity fears coupled with the low profitability and in many cases the losses of the liner companies prompted concerns over the industry.
   “However, despite this underlying weakness liner companies have regained pricing power during the fourth quarter in some of their routes on the back of strong growth and high trade volumes.
   “Tonnage demand from the charter market has accelerated driving the charter rate indexes higher, while the actual rise has been much more pronounced in the larger vessel sizes above 3,000 TEUs,” Coustas said.