Hisane Masaki, Special Correspondent | Aug 01, 2012 12:09PM EDT
Major Japanese international freight forwarder Yusen Logistics Co. said that its net profit surged 166.7 percent in the first quarter of fiscal 2012, which started on April 1, from a year earlier, to $16.04 million on a consolidated basis.
The company’s group operating revenue edged up 1.5 percent in the April-June quarter from the same three-month period last year to $983.01 million. The company’s group operating profit tumbled 42.4 percent to $5.66 million.
Yusen Logistics gave no clear explanation why it posted a sharp rise in net profit in the first quarter of the current fiscal year despite slight revenue growth.
The Tokyo-based company is the logistics arm of Nippon Yusen Kabushiki Kaisha (NYK Line), Japan’s largest shipping firm by sales. Yusen Air & Sea Service Co., Ltd. (YAS), the core logistics unit of NYK Line, absorbed NYK Logistics (Japan) Co., Ltd., another logistics subsidiary of NYK Line, and changed its name to Yusen Logistics Co. on Oct.1, 2010.
In the Americas, Yusen Logistics posted a group operating revenue of $217.90 million in the April-June period, down 10.5 percent from a year earlier. The company’s group operating loss in the Americas shrank to $975,000 in the April-June period from $1.96 million a year earlier.
Looking back on the global economic situation in the April-June period, Yusen Logistics said in an earnings release, “A global economic recovery was slow due to a delayed recovery in the jobs market in the United States and the prolonged debt crisis in Europe. Growth in Asian economies also slowed down.”
On the domestic economic situation in the April-June period, the company said, “The Japanese economy was recovering at a moderate pace thanks to strong demand related to reconstruction efforts from the Great East Japan Earthquake and also thanks to government measures aimed at boosting domestic demand.”
“However, as the world economy is in the doldrums, the future outlook for the Japanese economy is now uncertain,” the company said.
Yusen Logistics said that although the global logistics market was largely sluggish, the company managed to increase the volume of cargo it handled in the first quarter of the current fiscal year on a year-on-year basis.
Citing the deteriorating outlook for the global logistics market, Yusen Logistics revised downward its revenue and profit forecasts for the whole of fiscal 2012, which were announced on April 27.
The company’s new full-year projections are as follows: $4.39 billion in operating revenue, up 12.3 percent from fiscal 2011; $69.62 million in operating profit, down 12.3 percent from fiscal 2011; $37.97 million in net profit, up 18.8 percent from fiscal 2011.
Contact Hisane Masaki at yiu45535@nifty.com.
