TCC cash flow to cover costs, positive results next May

THE Containership Company (TCC), the new boy on the liner block, has says it is generating the cash-flow from its single Great Dragon Service cover operating expenses and deliver positive results this year, reported Paris-based Alphaliner.

TCC said that it expects the operating profit for its first full year of operations to April 30 to be in the region of US$6.5 million to $7.5 million, said Alphaliner.


The start-up company running a shuttle from Taicang port, 60 kilometres up the Yangtze from Shanghai, near a large body of exporting customers, said its had spent $10.5 million to launch the Shanghai-LA shuttle, said the report.


A further $9.5 million has been invested in containers, which are now being sold or refinanced through sale and lease-back transactions or simple bank financing.


By early August, TCC will operate a fleet of eight vessels of between 2,500 to 3,000 TEU. The company has purchase options on four of the vessels including the 2,564-TEU Taicang Dragon, valued at $35 million against a purchase option of $29 million.


The vessel has been fixed for up three years and TCC will have an option to buy throughout the charter period.


But the Taicang Dragon is the smallest of the TCC fleet and has been withdrawn from the Great Dragon Service at the end of June as it switches from a five ship rotation to a four week rotation with faster sailing speeds as of this month.