SINGAPORE - Shipbuilder Yangzijiang Shipbuilding reported a 37 per cent drop in first-quarter net profit to 448 million yuan (S$93.12 million).

The mainboard-listed Chinese firm's revenue for the three months to March 31 dropped 11 per cent to 2.71 billion yuan, compared with the same period a year earlier.

The shipbuilding business' revenue contribution fell 13 per cent to 2 billion yuan, even though more vessels were delivered in the first quarter - 15 vessels, compared with 10 vessels a year earlier.

The firm said this was because the "vessels delivered were of relatively smaller sizes".

It experienced higher volumes, which meant that revenue from trading business rose from 355.5 million yuan to 429.7 million yuan.

Quarterly earnings per share were 11.69 fen, down from 18.45 fen a year earlier, while net asset value was 580.6 fen as at March 31, up from 568.9 fen as at Dec 31.