As a result, the company recorded EBITDA of $37 mill, compared with $41 mill in the previous quarter.
Chemical Tankers EBITDA was $28 mill, compared to $31 mill in 2Q17, reflecting the weaker spot market. The direct financial impact for Odfjell Tankers due to hurricane ‘Harvey’ in the US Gulf was limited in the quarter, but utilisation of the fleet dropped.
Odfjell Terminals EBITDA fell to $9 mill, compared to $10 mill in the previous quarter.
The company continued its policy of exiting from the gas markets, where the two existing LPG carriers are assets held for sale.
Odfjell also announced the sale of Odfjell Terminals' 50% ownership share in the Singapore terminal. The expected book gain will be $135 mill, with net proceeds of around $150 mill. The sale is likely to close in 4Q17, the company said.
"3Q was a challenging quarter for our tanker and terminal divisions. Our balance sheet remains robust and our competitiveness continues to increase, so we are positioned to benefit once our markets recover. The sale of our Singapore terminal in line with our strategy will result in a significant gain," said Kristian Mørch, Odfjell CEO.
Odfjell also said that it expected the 4Q17 results to be in line with this quarter’s figures.
Norne Research said that revenues of $208 mill and EBITDA beat its estimates, however, somewhat lower than consensus.
“We were expecting the figures to be strongly negatively affected by Hurricane ‘Harvey’. However, the impact seems to be smaller than we thought. 4Q17 is guided to be in line with 3Q17, not surprisingly, as 2017 is a challenging year for the company. Our estimates should not be changed significantly and we are likely to maintain our long term Buy recommendation,” the analyst said.
Increased depreciation ($23.9 mill v $18.2 mill in 2Q17, as the expected economic lifetime of Asian fleet was changed from 30 to 25 years) and more than $2 mill loss from joint ventures brought the EBIT to our forecast level of $2 mill, Norne said.