No improvement

Neptune Orient Lines (NOL) suffered another month of declines in both revenues and volumes in excess of 20%.

But the Singapore liner operator did see a very modest improvement over the figures seen the previous month.

In the four weeks to 29 May 2009 volumes at APL, NOL’s liner subsidiary, saw a year-on-year decline of 21% to 159,100-feu.

NOL, which is largely state-owned, said average revenue per feu carried showed a year-on-year decline of around 23%.

Average revenue per feu for the period under review was $2,326 versus the $3,023 achieved twelve months earlier.

Consequently, liner activity revenues were $370m, a decline of over 39% on the $610m achieved in the same period last year.

The Singapore liner operator blamed the decrease in volumes on the decline in demand on all major trade lanes.

Lower average revenue per feu was due to lower core freight rates and lower bunker recovery, it added.

Year-to-date volumes were down 25% on a year ago to 798,400-feu, while rates showed a year-on-year decline of 18% to $2,952 per feu.

NOL has opted to report the performance of its logistics operation on a quarterly basis, rather than monthly.

Last month NOL reported a first quarter loss of $245m as revenue from its container shipping business sank 36%.

(Source: Shipping News)