Glonghui, March 4 | Yamato published a research report saying that Pacific Shipping's Equal Lease Agreement (TCE) fell 42% year-on-year, dragging down the full year's core profit by 83% to US$119 million. Among them, core profit for the second half of last year fell 44% to US$43 million compared to the first half of the year, lower than the forecast, mainly due to the decline in TCE for Xiaoling portable ships. In order to optimize its fleet, Pacific Shipping sold a total of 4 ships and acquired 9 used ships last year to expand its extremely convenient fleet. Yamato said he is optimistic about Pacific Shipping's short-term prospects, pointing out that management expects the market environment to be free from supply issues in the short term, and that current TCE prices are expected to recover. Yamato expects that the company's profit will record a year-on-year decline in the percentage of units this year, and the TCE for portable and ultra-convenient extreme vessels is expected to fall by a low number of units from year to year. Yamato also pointed out that Pacific Shipping has adopted a more cautious ship procurement policy and predicts that this year's capital expenditure will be only 65 million US dollars. Therefore, it is believed that this year's shareholder return visibility is very high. It is expected to be one of the market's priorities. The profit forecast per share for 2024 to 2025 was lowered by 38% to 43% to reflect that last year's performance was lower than expected, reiterated its “buy” rating, and lowered the target price to HK$2.7.