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Feb. 2 (NBD) -- China's seafood producer Zhangzidao Group Co.Ltd (ZONECO) announced on Tuesday that the group's shares would be suspended trading from 31 January 2018 and resume no later than next Monday.

According to the announcement, the company was checking the inventory of its bottom sowing yesso scallops, but found it abnormal in some parts of sea areas. The possible write-off of the account or provision for the fall in price of those scallop inventories was forecasted to lead to a full-year loss of 2017.

While Zhangzidao's experts of its sea farm research center are analyzing the reason for the decreased inventories based on recent environmental monitoring data of the northern Yellow Sea from the related marine research institutions and other data, and the analysis is expected to be published before Sunday.

The cultivation of yesso scallops could be affected by continuous high temperature in Dalian area in the summer of 2017, an industry insider introduced to NBD.

The group later revised that the company is expected to lose 530 million yuan (84.3 million U.S. dollars) to 720 million yuan (114.5 million U.S. dollars) in year 2017.

However, in Zhangzidao's report of the third quarter of 2017, the company still predicted that the net profits for shareholders of the listed company will rise or fall in a range of 13.07 to 38.20 percent compared with a year earlier, with the amount of 90 million yuan to 110 million yuan (14.3 million to 17.5 million U.S. dollars).

It is noted that on 25 October last year, the company released the result of its autumn spot tests on the bottom sowing yesso scallops, drawing a conclusion that there existed no risk of impairment. Besides, Zhangzidao invited investors to see the sowing process on the sea in December.

But a fisher indicated that in November last year, his boat has caught a large number of dead scallops and many scallops he fished up recently were still dead.

NBD noted that from 13 November to 21 December, the second biggest shareholder Hedao Yihao Securities Investment Fund has sold 1.9985 million shares in Zhangzidao Group, with a value of 16.1239 million yuan (2.6 million U.S. dollars).

This is the second time that the company encountered such a issue. On 14 November 2014, the group suddenly announced the halt of trading and half of a month later, it reported the abnormal scallop stocks due to the unusual cold water current.

Email: zhanglingxiao@nbd.com.cn