Joseph Bonney, Senior Editor | Jul 31, 2012 10:51AM EDT
NYK said its first quarter losses on container shipping narrowed, and the diversified Japanese carrier said it expects the unit to show a profit for the full fiscal year.
The company’s liner shipping operating loss narrowed to 1.6 billion yen ($20 million) from $105 million a year earlier. Liner revenue rose 6.3 percent to $1.4 billion.
NYK said it is pinning its expectations for a container shipping profit on peak-season surcharges this summer and continued cost cutting, including slow steaming and the use of vessel-sharing alliances.
For its fiscal first quarter ended June 30, NYK reported a group-wide net loss of $16.5 million, compared with a loss of $89 million a year ago, as revenue rose 6.5 percent to just under $6 billion.
Group-wide operating profit was $85 million, compared with a group-wide loss of $130 million a year earlier. Recurring income totaled $60 million, compared with a loss of $126 million a year earlier.
NYK said its bulk shipping unit was profitable, as car carrier shipments are recovering from 2011’s earthquake in Japan and floods in Thailand, and the supply-demand balance has improved. NYK’s logistics unit posted higher profit on lower revenue.
The company made no change to its previous forecast of $625 million in group-wide operating profit and $500 million in profit on continuing operations during its fiscal year. The revenue forecast was trimmed 1.5 percent to $12.25 billion.
Contact Joseph Bonney at jbonney@joc.com. Follow him on Twitter @josephbonney.