Bill Mongelluzzo | May 06, 2010 4:09PM EDT
Container lessor Textainer Group Holdings Ltd. reported net income of $24.2 million, an increase of 16 percent compared to the first quarter of 2009, with fleet utilization for the quarter exceeding 90 percent.
"With more than 70 percent of the company's fleet committed to long-term leases, we were able to achieve an average utilization rate of 90.1 percent for the three months ended March 31, 2010," said John A. Maccarone, president and chief executive officer.
Since a rebound in global trade appears to be underway, Textainer is preparing for growth opportunities by placing an order for 70,000 TEUs of new containers to be delivered in the first half of 2010.
Textainer's fleet utilization rate continues to increase due to higher trade volumes, the impact of vessel slow-steaming, which consumes 5 to 7 percent more containers for the same amount of cargo and a drop in new container manufacturing this past year.
For the week ending April 30, Textainer's utilization was 94.9 percent, or a 6.1 percent improvement over the utilization rate for the week ended Dec. 31, 2009.
Textainer estimates there were 370,000 TEUs of new production orders for delivery globally through April, of which lessors accounted for about 65 percent.
"As production levels are expected to remain low, combined with the anticipated retirement of older containers, we believe there is now a shortage of containers," the company stated.
-- Contact Bill Mongelluzzo at bmongelluzzo@joc.com.
