Statistics o statistics

'Empty cargo'-between the lines, by CS Tan of the Staronline recently is a clear indication on what is taking shape in the downturn of the economy in the coming months.

Looking at the dramatic decline in the Baltic Dry Index (BDI), which measures the demand for shipping capacity with the supply of dry-bulk carriers, is felt close to home by two domestic carriers.

C.S. Tan wrote "The BDI closed at 666 points on Thursday, showing the anaemic demand for shipping – a massive drop from its peak of 11,793 in May when demand was overwhelming. The current shortfall of demand against supply is greater than during the Asian financial crisis when the index hovered around 800.

As a result of the fall-off in demand to ship commodities, many shipping companies have cut freight rates, reduced sailing frequencies or idled some of their ships altogether.

The recent financial results of MISC Bhd showed its liner logistics division suffered an operating loss of RM71mil in its second quarter ended Sept 30, 2008.

With that kind of loss in a single quarter, and shipping rates declining further since September, that division could lose RM700mil a year under current conditions. The liner division refers to MISC’s container shipping business.

Fortunately for MISC, its liquefied natural gas (LNG) shipping business produced RM1.2bil in operating profit in the first half of its financial year. It would remain a very profitable company.

The drag of cargo transport losses is more severe for Malaysia Airlines (MAS). The company reported that its operating loss from cargo services totalled RM75mil in its third quarter ended Sept 30 against an operating profit of RM119mil from airline operations.

The national carrier’s third-quarter profit would, therefore, have been much higher if not for the collapse in the demand for cargo transport.

The group’s net profit in the final quarter should, however, be much higher as it is sticking to a net profit target of RM400mil to RM550mil for the full year against RM200mil in the first nine months.

Hence, MAS’ fourth quarter could show a net profit of RM200mil or more, especially as oil prices continue to drop, but assuming cargo losses do not expand further."

Since the above statistics are available, it would good if we could get indications of the state of the matter as it affects the economy of Sabah. Sabah Ports I am sure would be able to provide us with the latest statistics, at least for the month of October, so that we could see how far the effect on the shipping decline will show on the operations of the port. We know for a fact that there is a direct correlation with the two elements. We just need to inform ourselves of how the situation is shaping up. We also know that what you see at the harbour is an indication enough of the volume of economic activities in the various zones or divisions in the state, ie west and east coasts. Statistics speaks of the numbers of containers handled in any given period, so too of the volumes and types of of cargoes handled and which port they are handled. From these statistics we can directly deduce the situations that we are in. If it is merely and purely as information to the public at large, so be it as education is central of a knowledge-based society.

The same goes to airports in Sabah. The statistics from this sector will be the most sought after as it directly tell us of the number of visitors coming to visit Sabah. This is important as tourism is our money earner and we want to take stock of informations so that hopefully we could at the various options at mitigating the blow of the economic tsunami impacting upon this sector.

So Sabah Ports, Innoprise, Sawit Kinabalu and other hosts of GLC's in the state, do let us know of the statistics so that there is greater awareness amongst the rakyats of the state of the matter. There is nothing better than an enriched society in terms of facts of their own economy.