OREANDA-NEWS. In the first half-year of 2014 JSC “Latvian Shipping Company” and its subsidiaries (hereinafter - LSC Group) continued to improve their financial indicators - last year in the same period the Group suffered a loss of 26.60 million USD, but this year - 8.32 million USD. The total income from the fleet in the first half of 2014 was 47.14 million USD.

The loss of the LSC Group in the first half-year included vessel impairments in the amount of 22.70 million USD, losses from the sale of the vessel “Riga” in the amount of 0.32 million USD, as well as re-evaluation of the indirect investment in JSC “Latvijas Naftas tranzits” in the amount of 8.35 million USD. After the sale of the vessel “Riga” the fleet of the LSC Group consists of sixteen modern tankers with an average age of 6.5 years. The total value of the LSC fleet as of June 30, 2014 was 384.98 million USD.

“In the first half of the year the sea transport market did not meet expectations, and, in particular, the performance of the tanker market segment was disappointing. But the fleet of the LSC Group mostly operated on time charters, thus we managed to avoid income reduction in this segment,” indicates Chairman of the Management Board of the LSC Robert Kirkup.

JSC “Latvian Shipping Company” (NASDAQ OMX RIGA: LSC1R) is among the biggest vessel owners in the segment of medium and handy size tankers and takes leading positions in terms of the transported amount of petroleum products among similar companies in Northern Europe. The company owns 16 modern vessels employing more than 700 professional and high-skilled seamen from Latvia. The average age of the LK fleet is 6.5 years. All of the vessels have received ISM (International Safety Management) certificates.