OSG reports earnings drop

OSG reports earnings drop Overseas Shipholding Group Inc. reported third quarter net profit of $26.6 million compared to $90.8 million in the same period a year earlier.
   Shipping revenues for the quarter ending Sept. 30 were $277.2 million compared to $265.9 million the same period a year earlier.
   The company said there was a decline in average daily time charter equivalent rates for some sorts of tankers including VLCCs, Aframaxes and handysize product carriers.
   Morten Arntzen, president and chief executive officer, said the company had an increase in overall product carrier time charter equivalent revenues because of an “increase and diversification of ships in that fleet and optimizing the mix of spot and time charters.”
   During the quarter OSG said it was building four long range product tankers and was diversifying into the Suezmax crude tanker market. The company also won a contract from Petrobras to use Jones Act tankers to shuttle oil from deepwater fields in the Gulf of Mexico beginning in early 2010.
   As of Sept. 30 OSG owned or operated fleet totaled 107 international- and U.S.-flag vessels compared with 91 at Sept. 30, 2006. Fifty-seven of those vessels were owned, with the remaining vessels bareboat or time chartered-in. OSG has 42 new vessels under construction that will be either owned or chartered-in.