SINGAPORE’s Pacific International Lines enjoyed a massive rebound in FY 2024, according to results revealed late last week.
The company achieved a net profit after tax of USD 1.342 billion for FY2024 compared to USD 306.93 million for FY2023. PIL’s financial year coincides with the calendar year.
In 2024, PIL recorded a revenue of USD 4.305 billion, which was a 49% year-on-year growth arising from the strong results delivered by the container shipping business, PIL said. EBITDA for the year also improved USD 1.126 billion from USD 566.17 million to USD 1.692 billion.
In terms of business segments, PIL’s container shipping business saw its FY2024 revenue rise to USD 3.764 billion, an improvement of USD 1.258 billion from FY2023, driven mainly by stronger freight rates, high asset utilisations and a volume growth of 9.6% year-on-year in a highly disrupted market environment.
As a result of these factors, the FY2024 EBITDA of the container shipping business was USD $1.654 billion and EBIT was USD 1.329 billion.
For the container manufacturing business, the FY2024 revenue was USD 541.14 million, an increase of USD 163.44 million from FY2023. This was primarily driven by a surge in demand for dry freight containers due to the disruptions caused by the Red Sea crisis, and restocking activities in the US prior to the US presidential election, as well as deliveries of new container vessels to shipping lines during the year which further stimulated demand for containers, PIL said. As a result, the FY2024 EBITDA of the container manufacturing business was USD 47.26 million and EBIT was USD 33.66 million.
As at 31 December 2024, PIL continued to maintain a strong balance sheet position with healthy cash balances at USD 2.330 billion.
PIL’s fleet of owned vessels was 89, with another 12 chartered-in vessels. To date, PIL has ordered 18 newbuild LNG dual-fuel vessels, with six having been delivered, supporting PIL’s goal of operating a more modern fuel-efficient and environmentally sustainable fleet, the company said.
CEO Lars Kastrup said: “Thanks to the effective initiatives which we have put in place since 2022, we continued to perform well in 2024 amidst the challenging external environment. During the year, our teams worked hard in navigating disruptions with the evolving Red Sea situation and increased port congestions.
“As our fundamentals continued to strengthen during the year, and with agile asset optimisation, we were able to capture the strong volumes in the regions which we serve. I’m also pleased that we achieved a healthy increase in EBIT as we continued our strong focus on cost management and efficiency optimisation. We are committed to pressing ahead to maintain our discipline in being cost-effective and cost-conscious in our operations.
“The year ahead is expected to be filled with uncertainty and heightened challenges. The additional capacity brought on by newbuild vessels coming on stream in 2025 is expected to outpace the market demand for goods, but continued port congestions may absorb some of the capacity growth,” Mr Kastrup said.