JOC Staff | Feb 01, 2013 4:24PM EST
Major Japanese international freight forwarder Yusen Logistics Co. said that its group net profit plunged 54.5 percent in the first nine months of fiscal 2012, which started on April 1, 2012, from a year earlier to $16.24 million.
The company saw its group operating revenue rise 7.0 percent in the April-December period on a year-on-year basis to $2.70 billion. The company’s group operating profit tumbled 57.8 percent to $24.02 million.
Yusen Logistics said in an earnings release that its air cargo volume fell in the April-December period on a year-on-year basis. The company also said that although its sea freight volume rose in the nine-month period from a year earlier, the profitability of its sea cargo operations declined.
In the Americas, Yusen Logistics saw its group operating revenue grow 3.3 percent in the April-December period from a year earlier to $604.09 million. The company posted a group operating profit of $1.28 million in the region, compared with a group operating loss of $500,000 a year earlier.
The Tokyo-based company is the logistics arm of Nippon Yusen Kabushiki Kaisha (NYK Line), Japan’s largest shipping firm by sales.
Yusen Logistics left unchanged its revenue forecast for the whole of fiscal 2012, but it downgraded its full-year operating and net profit forecasts, saying that the “harsh” business environment is expected to continue. The previous full-year forecasts were announced on Oct. 31.
The company’s current full-year projections are as follows: $3.62 billion in operating revenue, up 7.8 percent from fiscal 2011; $31.52 million in operating profit, down 53.8 percent from fiscal 2011; $18.48 million in net profit, down 32.7 percent from fiscal 2011.