Rickmers Maritime's second quarter net profit fell by 14 per cent to US$7.7 million (S$9.7 million) on the back of a 3 per cent drop in charter revenue to US$35 million.

The lower charter revenue was due mainly to 37.9 scheduled off-hire days for the dry-docking of three vessels.

On account of a contractual increase in fixed operating expense and vessel management fees, the trust incurred higher vessel operating expenses.

This led to weaker net profit during the quarter.

All 16 of the trust's containerships are currently chartered out on fixed-rate time charters with an average remaining charter period of 2.7 years.

Unscheduled off-hire days amounted to 5.1 days.

Excluding the scheduled off-hire days arising from the dry-docking of three vessels, the fleet maintained a high utilisation rate of 99.7% during the second quarter.

An unchanged distribution per unit of 0.6 US cent a share was declared. This will be paid on Aug 29.