CMB REPORTS BOOM IN BULK SHIPPING PROFITS

CMB REPORTS BOOM IN BULK SHIPPING PROFITS    CMB, the Belgian dry bulk, tankers and port group, reported an estimated consolidated group profit of 156 million euro ($147 million) for 2000, 13 times the net result earned in 1999.
   “This substantial increase in results… can be attributed to the considerable improvement of the world economy and of the maritime industry in 2000,” a spokesman for CMB said. “This improvement has had the most significant impact in the dry bulk and tankers divisions.”
   Bocimar, the dry bulk arm of the group, made an estimated profit of euro61 million ($57 million) last year, as compared to a loss of euro26 million in 1999.
   Euronav, CMB’s tankers business, had a profit of euro65 million ($61 million), compared to a deficit of euro11 million in the previous year.
   Gas shipping activities returned a profit of euro16 million ($15 million), up from euro14 million. Port activities, including Belgian subsidiary Hessenatie, made a profit of euro9 million ($8 million), down from euro10 million in 1999.
   CMB said that, in the dry bulk division, the average freight rate for a Capesize vessel was $20,000 a day in 2000, up from $10,000 in 1999. CMB’s Bocimar subsidiary and its partners operate about 55 Capesize vessels.
   In the tankers division, freight rates improved from $21,700 a day in 1999 to $55,000 a day last year.
   CMB made a capital gain of $21 million last year on the sale of shares in Hong Kong-based dry-bulk shipping company Wah Kwong.