Hong Kong-based (although Bermuda registered) APT Satellite Holdings reported that its trading conditions in the Asia-Pacific market remains as difficult as ever. APT operates the Apstar fleet of satellites. China Satellite Communications is a 51.77 per cent shareholder.

Its March 23rd results statement for the year to December 31st 2021 reported its revenue amounted to HK$927.8m (€107m) representing an increase of 4.3 per cent amounting to HK$38.5m as compared to 2020. The current fleet covers some 75 per cent of the world’s population.

During the year the Group’s in-orbit satellites namely, APSTAR-5C (which it operates with Telesat of Canada), APSTAR-6C, APSTAR-7, APSTAR-9, APSTAR-6D, operated by APT Mobile, were all healthy.

APT has entered into a consortium with other investors to develop the APSTAR-6E satellite in 2020. The new j-v entity, APSTAR Alliance Satcom was established in Hong Kong in 2021. The development of APSTAR-6E is in line with the schedule and the satellite is expected to be put into service in the year of 2023.

“In 2021 the satellite transponder market conditions in the global and Asia Pacific region continued to be on the downturn. The demand growth for satellite broadcasting and satellite telecommunication business had been sluggish while the situation of oversupply has not been improved and satellite transponder bandwidth lease price still in a relatively significant decline trend. Changes in the market environment, in particular, the impact of Covid-19 pandemic for the global economy resulted in some satellite communication projects being postponed, delayed and cancelled, which had a greater impact on the transponder leasing business,” said the company.

APT said its diversification programme included the building of new gateway Earth stations in Hong Kong, Australia, Indonesia and Malaysia.

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