South Korea’s Pan Ocean has reported a fall in profit for the first quarter ended 31 March 2016 compared to the year-ago period.

Profit for the quarter fell by 39.6% to $61.38m from $101.61m in the same period of last year.

The first quarter revenue, however, inched up by 3.6% year-on-year to $376.64m.

Looking ahead, the shipowner observed that the dry bulk market situation this year is likely to remain similar to that of 2015 due to the chronic oversupply of tonnages and slow demand.

However, more scrapping activities could help to adjust the current supply-demand imbalance and possibly improve the market in the near future, Pan Ocean commented.

“While South America’s grain season is expected to keep supporting the market, decreasing coal import of both China and India is putting downward pressure,” Pan Ocean said.

However, China’s iron ore import has been rising thanks to the closure of domestic iron ore mines, fanning positive prospects for dry bulk shipping.