MISC says liner market softening due to overcapacity

MISC says liner market softening due to overcapacity    Malaysia’s MISC Berhad said that better results from its petroleum and heavy engineering businesses offset poor results from the depressed liner shipping market in its second quarter ended Sept. 30.
   MISC posted a pre-tax profit of Ring696.7 million ($191.6 million) in the second quarter, up 10.9 percent from Ring628.4 million in the same quarter last year.
   MISC’s revenue in the quarter increased 10 percent to Ring2.78 billion ($764.6 million) from Ring2.53 billion a year ago.
   “The prospect of the shipping industry is softening due to the additional capacity from new buildings and the delay in scrapping of old tonnage,” said MISC in statement.
   “However, the group’s earnings arising from existing long term charters in the LNG, petroleum, offshore businesses and the turnaround of heavy engineering business will provide the group with stable earnings,” the carrier said.