New service, fuel costs see Trailer Bridge post 1st quarter loss

New service, fuel costs see Trailer Bridge post 1st quarter loss

Related News •   McLean family puts Trailer Bridge stock sale on hold •   U.S. Justice Department probes Jones Act lines

   U.S. Jones Act ocean carrier Trailer Bridge Inc. has reported a first quarter net loss of $1.8 million, down from a net income of $1.3 million the year earlier period.
   The Jacksonville, Fla.-based company said the startup of a new Dominican Republic/Puerto Rico service incrementally reduced net income by an estimated $1.6 million during the first quarter, while the net fuel cost increased $1 million.
   As a consequence of those and other extra costs, Trailer Bridge's first quarter operating income declined 81.6 percent to $692,000, compared with $3.8 million in the first period of last year. Revenue in the first three months of this year gained 13.3 percent to $30.4 million as southbound container volume increased 15.1 percent.
   The company's deployed vessel capacity utilization was 72.4 percent southbound and 21.6 percent northbound, down from 80.3 percent and 24.6 percent, respectively, during the first quarter of 2007. The drop in utilization was attributed to the introduction of a fifth vessel in the company's new service, which increased capacity by 22.1 percent southbound compared to the year earlier quarter.
   'Our core business, our ongoing twice weekly Puerto Rico services, continued to be profitable,' said John D. McCown, chairman and chief executive officer. 'Apart from some other items, we were pushed into a loss due to increased fuel costs and investment in the new Dominican Republic/Puerto Rico service. However, March and April results as well as current trends in our new service are encouraging.
   'Fuel increases continued to rise and outpaced fuel surcharge increases. To mitigate this loss we filed various additional fuel surcharges last week that are scheduled to go into effect June 1. We believe that our customers understand and will accept the surcharges.
   'We remain confident in our proven system and in our ability to meet the challenges of a new startup and the reality of rising fuel costs, a challenge all carriers must meet.'