Brightoil Petroleum plunged to a HKD871.15m ($112.29m) interim loss from a HKD965.23m profit in the previous corresponding period as both the International Trading and Bunkering (ITB) and Marine Transportation (MT) businesses faced a challenging market environment.

Revenue fell by a third to HKD23.59bn from HKD36.26bn last year.

The depressed shipping market and decreased bunker demand led to poor demand and margins. The ITB and MT businesses saw gross profit fall to HKD740.7m and a gross loss of HKD233m respectively on a change in fair value of derivative financial instruments.

Global bunker sales volume fell 37% from the year before to approximately 2.8m metric tonnes, as volume in key markets of Singapore and China fell and the group took a more conservative approach to credit risk management. The MT business meanwhile suffered from low freight rates during this period, mainly due to ample tonnage supply, very limited tonnage used for floating storage and slow global economic recovery, Brightoil said in a stock market release.

Source: Seatrade-Global