Mercator Lines (Singapore), the Indian-owned international dry bulk shipping company, today announced an increase of 30% in net profits to US$ 13.1 million ($17.9 million) for the first quarter of financial year March 2011 (Q1 FY2011), compared to US$10 million for the corresponding period previous year.

The group’s revenues for the Q1 FY2011 increased by 10% to US$39 million from US$35.5 million in Q1 FY2010, aided by higher capacity and better spot market rates.

The Time Charter Equivalent (TCE) rate per vessel per day, increased to US$30,001 for Q1 FY2011 up by 3% from US$29,258 in the previous corresponding period. Total number of vessel operating days recorded a rise of 14% to 1,251 days in comparison to 1,097 days in Q1 FY2010.

Shalabh Mittal, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Mercator, says: “We are happy to announce a strong set of Q1 FY2011 results with increase in revenues and profits. Our strategy of having a large portion of our capacity on long term business has shielded the Group from a volatile business environment and has helped us achieve consistent growth. While the dry bulk market has been weak in the last two months, the long term fundamentals of the dry bulk shipping industry are intact. Our contract cover and strong balance sheet with US$29 million cash, a low debt to equity ratio firmly positions us for further opportunistic growth.”

The company had recently expanded and took delivery of a three-year-old modern gearless vessel Gauri Prem, which has been fixed on a three-year time charter contract with a premier customer.

The company has also recently won a long-term contract based on its specialised geared panamax fleet and its ability to provide full logistics solutions along with its parent company.

Mercator says it now has about 75% of its capacity for FY2011 and about 60% capacity for FY2012 already contracted.

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