Danish shipping company J. Lauritzen has confirmed it opted to sell two Supramax bulk carrier newbuildings and cancel a part-owned handysize bulk carrier during the second quarter of 2016 as it executed further cash improving initiatives.

The company narrowed its quarterly loss to US$22.4m for the second quarter of 2016 from a loss of US$117.6m reported in the same period a year earlier. The company's revenues for the period dropped to US$68m from US$91m seen in the same quarter in 2015.

J. Lauritzen's loss for the first six months of 2016 amounted to US$30.6m, against a loss of US$144.5m in the first half of 2015, while its revenues for the period dropped to US$155.4m from US$180.6m seen a year earlier.

"Despite some improvements in Q2, dry cargo markets remained at historically depressed levels due to sustained weak trade growth and tonnage oversupply, which significantly impacted our EBITDA. Continuing cash building initiatives, including trimming of our owned dry cargo fleet caused additional write-downs negatively impacting the bottom-line," Jan Kastrup-Nielsen, President & CEO, said, adding that "our gas carriers performed largely as expected."

Total assets amounted to US$625.9m as at June 30, 2016, down from US$858.6m seen at year-end 2015, mainly due to the sale of assets and cancellation of newbuilding contracts.

Namely, the company's two 61,000dwt bulk carriers, currently under construction at China's Dalian Cosco Kawasaki Shipyard, were sold in May and August 2016, respectively.

According to data provided by VesselsValue, the newbuildings, which were sold for US$18.3m and US$18.4m to Danish BW Dry Cargo and US-based Raven Capital Management, are scheduled for delivery in 2016.