With tight transportation capacity and high sea freight costs, some listed companies “roll up their sleeves” to invest in shipbuilding.
On January 27, Loctek Ergonomic Technology Corp(300729) announced that in order to further enhance the company’s competitiveness and accelerate the development of the company’s overseas business, the company plans to sign a 1800teu container ship construction contract with China’s first-class shipyard, with a total construction price of US $32.6 million (a total of about 207 million yuan).
Source: company announcement
The main business of Loctek Ergonomic Technology Corp(300729) is the R & D, production and sales of ergonomic products. It has developed a variety of smart office and smart home products, and arranged cross-border e-commerce public overseas warehouse innovation service related businesses. It is reported that at present Loctek Ergonomic Technology Corp(300729) foreign sales account for a large proportion. Because the products are mainly large pieces, the proportion of sea freight in revenue is relatively high.
reduce logistics costs
The reason why Loctek Ergonomic Technology Corp(300729) spent a lot of money on shipbuilding is to strengthen supply chain security, improve supply chain efficiency and reduce transportation costs. Loctek Ergonomic Technology Corp(300729) said that since 2020, the global covid-19 epidemic has continued to spread, the efficiency of ports in overseas countries is generally low, and the security, timeliness, reliability and economy of the supply chain have been severely challenged. At present, the online consumption trend of consumer goods e-commerce continues to strengthen, and the company’s online business is growing steadily and rapidly. Therefore, how to further improve the user experience of rapid arrival of e-commerce shopping, shorten the delivery cycle, improve the inventory turnover rate and reduce the disturbance of logistics cost to brand operation is very critical.
The announcement shows that for the container ship to be invested and built this time, the payment will be made in five phases according to the construction progress of the ship, with the proportion of 20%, 20%, 20% and 20% respectively. The ship is expected to be delivered in 2023.
In this regard, an industry analyst said that Loctek Ergonomic Technology Corp(300729) can sell the ship or rent it out to obtain rental income in the future.
According to the announcement, Loctek Ergonomic Technology Corp(300729) shipbuilding will also promote the integrated operation of the company’s public overseas warehouse business and shipping, and drive more small and medium-sized enterprise brands to go to sea. It is understood that at present Loctek Ergonomic Technology Corp(300729) cross-border e-commerce public overseas warehouse service has gradually provided overseas warehousing, logistics distribution, after-sales service, SaaS mode information service and other services for small and medium-sized foreign trade enterprises in Ningbo, Zhejiang, East China and even the whole country.
sea freight affects the company’s profit
Loctek Ergonomic Technology Corp(300729) is mainly engaged in ergonomic workstation series products, focusing on smart office and smart home products. In addition, the company has also arranged cross-border e-commerce public overseas warehouse innovation service related businesses.
China Securities News · China Securities Taurus reporter learned that because of the large overseas market share and the large products, the sea freight accounts for a high proportion in the revenue and profit of Loctek Ergonomic Technology Corp(300729) . Affected by the continuous rise of sea freight, Loctek Ergonomic Technology Corp(300729) the situation of “volume increase and profit decrease” also appeared in the first three quarters of 2021. In the first three quarters of 2021, the company’s main revenue was 2.1 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 72.27%, and the net profit attributable to the parent company was 124 million yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 23.46%; Deduct non net profit of 96.5994 million yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 32.12%.
On January 20, Loctek Ergonomic Technology Corp(300729) said during the institutional research that the current external environment situation is still severe. The profit side of the company is mainly affected by the sea freight. The sea freight has been at a high level since the third quarter of 2021. If the sea freight and exchange rate improve in the future, it will also be reflected in the profit margin of the company.
In addition to shipbuilding, Loctek Ergonomic Technology Corp(300729) is also actively arranging overseas warehouses to further improve the company’s anti risk ability on the road of internationalization. It is reported that since 2013, Loctek Ergonomic Technology Corp(300729) has purchased seven overseas warehouses in the core hub port area of the United States, and has also set up overseas warehouses in Germany, Japan and other places. There are a total of 14 warehouses in the world, with a total area of 148000 square meters.