China Merchants Energy Shipping (CMES) has projected a fourfold jump in profit for the nine-month period from January to September 2015.

The dry bulk carrier and oil tanker arm of state-owned China Merchants Group said the anticipated surge in profit compares to the gain of RMB313.07m ($49.28m) recorded in the same period of 2014.

“We expect our net profit for the first three quarters of 2015 to increase by 400-430% compared to the same period of last year,” Shanghai-listed CMES said.

The Chinese shipowner attributed the projected earnings to the continuing positive outlook in the tanker shipping market, and contributions from its joint venture China VLCC.

On 17 September, the company also received government subsidy amounting to RMB741.03m under the scrap-and-build policy.

Meanwhile, CMES also announced that it has received RMB5.58m worth of subsidy from Shanghai Pudong New Area Finance Department. The government aid will come under external income for the group and be taken into account for its profit and loss for 2015 financial year.