MOL: Cargo volumes to Asia showed weak growth; north-south trades see “substantial downswing”
Japanese carriers, who report their financial results on the basis of a fiscal year that runs from April 1 to March 31, on Friday reported their financial results for the first half of their 2014-2015 fiscal year, which ended Sept. 30.
NYK
NYK, Japan’s largest carrier had a profit of 20 billlion yen ($195 million), down from 20.5 billion yen.
Revenue was 1.179 trillion yen ($11.5 billion) in the first half, compared to 1.089 trillion yen in the first half of the prior fiscal year. In its liner shipping segment, NYK had an recurring profit of 4.9 billion yen in the first half, compared to a loss of 800 million yen the prior year. Liner revenue was 344 billion yen for the first half, a 13-percent increase from the same period the prior year.
“Although cargo volumes rose overall, freight rates declined due to the delivery and deployment of ultra-large container ships, mainly on European routes, which prompted a shift of older large vessels to other routes and caused a continued oversupply of vessels,” said NYK.
NYK is a member of the G6 Alliance, and it noted the G6 “expanded its collaboration to transpacific West Coast routes and transatlantic routes to further rationalize and enhance the services network. Asian routes were realigned to improve the competitiveness of services.”
NYK said it “strove to reduce fleet and operational costs through such measures as returning unprofitable vessels, refitting vessels to improve fuel efficiency, and deploying highly fuel efficient vessels.”
It said it used larger vessels to raise shipping efficiency, and vessels were assigned to match the attributes of each type of service. It also effectively utilized surplus vessels and charter ships to reduce schedule delays.
“Additionally, efforts were made to further reduce costs and raise gross profit by expanding EAGLE (a yield management program to reduce costs and maximize profit through efficient container operations) from North America to European and Latin American routes.”
In the terminal business, NYK said total handling volumes in and outside Japan increased compared to the last fiscal year.
MOL
MOL said it had a profit of 11.5 billion yen ($105 million) in the first half, compared with a 21.1 billion yen profit the first half of the prior fiscal year. Revenue in the first half of the year was 890 billion yen, compared with 845 billion in the first half of the 2013/2014 fiscal year.
MOL had a loss in its liner business of 10.8 billion yen in the first half of the current fiscal year, compared to a loss of 3.7 billion in the first half of last year. Liner revenue was higher: 384.9 billion yen in the first half of this fiscal year, compared to 357.1 billion a year earlier.
MOL said although container volumes from Asia to North America and Europe were firm, cargo volumes to China and elsewhere in Asia showed weak growth.
It said on the north-south trades, there was “a substantial downswing due to a slump in cargo volume, particularly in cargo bound for the South America East Coast.”
“K” Line
“K” Line said it had a profit of 21.2 billion yen ($193.5 million) in the first half, compared with 14.7 billion yen in the first half of the prior fiscal year.
The company had revenue of 659.8 billion yen in the first half of the 2014/15 fiscal year, compared with 606.6 billion in the first half of 2013/14.
Liner income was 9.5 billion yen in the first half, compared to 1.5 billion yen in the first half of the prior fiscal year. Liner revenue for “K” Line was 329.5 billion yen, compared with 294.3 billion yen a year earlier.
“K” Line said it carried 5-percent more containers — 8-percent more on the Asia-America and Asia-Europe routes, with a 2-percent decline on intra-Asia and sorth-south services.
