The biggest joint Arab shipping venture announced Thursday, June 28, net profits of $40.76 million in 2000, a year that saw it handle more than 820,000 tons of cargo.
Profits for the United Arab Shipping Company (UASC), owned by Iraq and five other regional governments, were up despite the high oil price, which bumped up the company's operational costs, UASC vice president Aid Abdullah Yussuf said.
Revenues for 2000 increased to $769.5 million, the Kuwait-based company said, adding that it had transported 819,541 containers and more than 827,000 tons of freight over the year.
UASC, which owns 55 vessels and an oil tanker, was set up in 1976 by Bahrain, Iraq, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, and has a paid-up capital of $991.2 million.
Iraq, under UN sanctions since its 1990 invasion of Kuwait and a fierce critic of both the emirate and Saudi Arabia, another co-owner, as lackeys of the United States, still attends the company's meetings, UASC sources in Kuwait said. ― (AFP, Dubai)
© Agence France Presse 2001
© 2001 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
