Cronos doubles earnings in third quarter

Cronos doubles earnings in third quarter    San Francisco-based Cronos is the latest container lessor to announce a surge in profits, as it reported a 124-percent rise in net income to $2 million on 10-percent higher revenue of '35.3 million for the third quarter.
   The Nasdaq-listed company also announced an increase in quarterly dividend to 5 cents per share.
   Revenue for the third quarter was $35.3 million up from $32 million in the same quarter of 2003. Gross lease revenue for the latest quarter was $33.8 million, or $4 million higher than in the corresponding period of 2003, “due to strong global container trade conditions and growth in the size of the company’s combined container fleet,” Cronos said.
   Utilization of the container fleet was 95 percent on Sept. 30, compared to 87 percent on Sept. 30, 2003.
   During the first nine months of 2004, Cronos added $86 million of new container equipment, resulting in a 6 percent increase to the size of its container fleet. The lessor owns and manages a fleet of over 437,000 TEUs.
   Cronos’s net income for the nine-month period ended Sept. 30 more than doubled to $4.9 million from $1.8 million.