Shanghai International Port Group's net profit fell in the first quarter of this year, battered by a decline in global trade.

Its net income for the first three months dropped 27.8 percent to 734 million yuan (US$107.5 million), or 0.035 yuan per share, the company said in a statement to the Shanghai Stock Exchange yesterday. Its revenue totaled 3.68 billion yuan.

The company handled a total of 5.56 million TEUs (twenty feet equivalent units), a decline of 15 percent from the same period last year.

It attributed the drop in container turnover and dry bulk goods on lower foreign trade volume which has hurt its earnings.

Separately, China CSSC Holdings Ltd, a unit of China's biggest shipbuilder, reported its first quarter net profit dropped as prices of steel plate rose.

Its net income tumbled 36 percent to 623 million yuan, or 0.94 yuan per share, from 978 million yuan, or 1.47 yuan, a year earlier, the company said yesterday in a statement to the Shanghai Stock Exchange.

CSSC's revenue rose 22.1 percent year on year to reach 54.6 billion yuan in the first three months, but fell 41 percent from the previous quarter.

"This was because the ship owner has been asking shipyards to postpone the delivery of new vessels as shipping is not seeing signs of recovery, which has hurt the company's income," said Xu Minle, an analyst at Bank of China.

Chinese shipbuilders saw a 94-percent plunge in orders for new vessels in the first quarter, official data showed.

(Shanghai Daily April 28, 2009)