NYK halves fiscal year profit forecast

NYK Line said it has nearly halved its profit forecast for the fiscal year ending March 31.

      Japan's largest carrier said it now expects to have a profit of 73 billion yen ($811 million) instead of the 140 billion yen ($1.55 billion) it was predicting earlier.

      NYK made the announcement as it reported a profit of 18.9 billion yen ($210 million) in the third quarter ending Dec. 31 compared to 38.1 billion yen in the same 2007 period. Revenue for the period was 611.4 billion yen ($6.79 billion) compared to 680.7 billion yen,

      The company noted results during the last nine months of 2008 were 10 percent lower than in the same period in 2007 as a result of declining freight rates in both the dry bulk market and weakening container transport levels.

      In the last quarter of 2008 "liner trade revenues were down substantially,” NYK said. “Although freight rates improved on some routes, including North American and Latin American routes, average freight rates dropped substantially mainly on European routes as freight transport dipped into negative growth and freight volume decreased on container routes overall.

      Although we worked to reduce fuel consumption and streamline service operations, we were squeezed both revenue- and cost-wise by surging bunker oil prices and the yen's rapid appreciation against other currencies, and consequently the liner trade segment substantially underperformed compared with the year-ago period, NYK said.

Source: American Shipper