Joseph Bonney | Aug 08, 2011 5:09PM EDT
Higher fuel costs and weak trans-Pacific results caused Matson Navigation’s second quarter operating profit to fall 75 percent to $9.4 million from $37 million a year ago.
The Alexander & Baldwin subsidiary said it its discontinuing its CLX2 express service between China and Long Beach but will retain its CLX1 route, a five-year-old China-U.S. service that carries domestic cargo westbound from the U.S. mainland to Hawaii and Guam.
Matson’s revenue rose 22 percent to $314.2 million during the quarter. Most of the increase came from higher volumes resulting from the addition of the second China service last September and an $18.5 million increase in fuel surcharges.
Container volume on Matson’s core Hawaii service rose 6 percent to 35,600 TEUs. Auto shipments to Hawaii rose 12 percent to 23,700 units. Guam containers fell 19 percent to 3,400 TEUs. China container volume more than doubled to 38,80 TEUs with the addition of the short-lived CLX2 service.
Operating profit from Matson’s logistics services unit rose 40 percent to $2.1 million, and revenue rose 16 percent to $103.1 million. Intermodal revenue jumped 23 percent to $64.5 million, while highway revenue rose 7 percent to $39.6 million.
-- Contact Joseph Bonney at jbonney@joc.com. Follow him on Twitter @josephbonney.
