The National Shipping Company of Saudi Arabia (“Bahri” or the “Company”, 4030 on the Saudi Exchange), the Kingdom’s leading shipping and logistics provider, today announced its financial results for the third quarter and the first nine months of 2024, reporting strong profit growth. For the third quarter of 2024, Bahri recorded a net profit of SAR 509 million, up 127% year-on-year (YoY). For the first nine months, net profit rose 40% YoY to SAR 1.70 billion. Profit growth was propelled by higher shipping rates, growth in shipped volumes and fleet size, and improved cost efficiencies.
Commenting on the Company’s results, Eng. Ahmed Ali Al Subaey, CEO of Bahri, said: “Bahri’s strong performance in the third quarter and the first nine months of 2024 underscores our commitment to delivering value across our businesses. The Company’s profit growth was driven by renewed revenue expansion built on the trust and reputation for reliability we have established with our customers, coupled with our employees’ sustained focus on revenue and cost optimization to consistently outperform the market.
“We are increasing our investments to modernize and expand our fleet, with 17 vessels expected to be added over the next two quarters, in addition to the five we acquired earlier this year. These vessels will support our market expansion efforts and facilitate the phase-out of older ships, further modernizing our fleet. At the same time, we will remain agile and responsive to changing market dynamics, while maintaining capital discipline to ensure value-accretive growth. This strategy is in support of the shipping and logistics transformation outlined in Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 and reinforces our role as a vital and responsible contributor to the global supply chain.”
The strong momentum demonstrated by Bahri’s financial results for the third quarter of 2024 was propelled by profitability improvements across all business units. The Chemicals business continued to lead growth, with EBITDA up 51% YoY. Oil transport provided the largest earnings contribution, with EBITDA growing by 5%. Dry Bulk showed resilience with positive EBITDA growth, while Integrated Logistics successfully reversed last year’s loss to achieve profitability.
As a key pillar of Bahri’s value-accretive growth strategy, the Company made significant progress in its fleet modernization and expansion program, investing SAR 2.82 billion by end-September 2024, mainly for five vessels acquired during the period and for initial payments on 17 additional vessels expected to join the fleet over the next two quarters, including nine Very Large Crude Carriers (VLCCs) purchased from Capital Maritime and Trading Corporation, as announced last August.
