May 30, 2012

 

Camanchaca reveals operating loss of US$7.3 million

 

 

Fishing-aquaculture firm, Camanchaca SA, has announced an operating loss of US$7.3 million in the January-March period of 2012, according to the latest financial results.

 

"The main discrepancy between actual results and our estimates lies in the fishing business, where we expected a negative operating income of US$2.2 million, while the actual operating income reached US$7.3 million," explained financial analyst LarrainVial , referring to the company's financial report.

 

Camanchaca segmented the financial information by business line: fishing, salmon and farmed products.

 

The fishing business line covers fishmeal and fish oil, canned products, frozen shrimp and frozen horse mackerel.

 

This company participates in the caught fishing business and holds a leading position in the two main fishing areas in the country: in the northern area it operates in Regions XV, I and II; and in the southern-central area it operates in the rest of the country from Coronel, Region VIII.

 

Aqua reported that some of the factors causing the poor performance of the company are due to low catches in the northern area (33,234 tonnes less) as a result of a longer ban on anchovy (from 1 January to 7 February); illegal strike from March 21 to May 15, which resulted in lower production of fishmeal (-42%) and of fish oil; a smaller size of the sardine in the central-southern area, implying a reduction in the production yield of fishmeal and fish oil; a 16.2% rise in fuel prices over the same quarter of 2011; low sale price of fishmeal resulting from the Peruvian stock clearance; recess in the markets from China during their new year celebration.

 

To LarrainVial, "the poor performance of this business are the result of falling sale prices of Atlantic salmon and the high cost structure of the company, designed for a much higher potential production than the present one."

 

The "farming product business continues the downward trend of previous quarters, with high costs that offset rising sale prices of most farmed products, which determined results that are below estimates. This caused a negative operating income of US$2.7 million versus our estimates of negative operating income of US$1.3 million," he added.

 

The financial service company forecasts that, after these "really bad" results, the coming quarters "should be better, especially in the fishing business."

 

For the brokerage business, Camanchaca could improve its results if the sale price of fishmeal remains at US$ 1,500 (first class fishmeal), due to the low catch quota of Peru in 2012; better sale volume of fishmeal, fish oil and canned products are recorded; the price of fuel drops, which would mean lower production costs.

 

Mussels are farmed in three major farming areas, all of them are operational and in Los Lagos Region; while oysters are farmed in two centres located in Regions III and IV, equipped with laboratory devices, maintenance workshop and processing plant, located in Caldera.

 

For abalone production, the company owns two farms on land and one sea farming centre, located in Region III, apart from a processing plant of frozen and canned abalone.