Lower Bunker Prices, Consumption Push Finnlines to Record Results

Finnlines achieved a result of €60.9 million during January-September 2016.

Finnlines Plc (Finnlines) Tuesday announced that low bunker prices and lower consumption helped the company's record-breaking financial result during the January to September 2016 period.

"The lower bunker consumption and also lower operative costs have contributed positively to the result as the share of inexpensive heavy fuel oil in Finnlines traffic is greater than in 2015 due to the scrubber installations," said Emanuele Grimaldi, President and CEO of Finnlines.

"However, rising oil prices means that a careful control of bunker consumption and purchase prices will be even more important in order to secure a continued efficiency gains in costs."

During the January-September 2016 period, Finnlines is said to have achieved a result of €60.9 million ($66.5 million), which is approximately €20 million ($21.84 million) more than the result reported for the same period of the previous year.

Despite a "sluggish" rate of growth in Europe, Grimaldi points out that, during the nine-month period, the company managed to exceed the previous year's record breaking result by 48.1 percent.

"Finnlines is both operationally and financially in a very advantageous position compared to its peers. Therefore, we see the future outlook very positively and we have a great potential ahead of us to further improve the performance of the Finnlines Group," concluded Grimaldi.

In August, Finnlines said its 1H 2016 bottom line was boosted by its use of "less expensive" HFO in conjunction with scrubbers for emission control area (ECA) compliance, rather than simply burning more expensive ECA compliant 0.10 percent sulfur fuels.