Shipping recovery lifts MOL’s half-year result

Shipping recovery lifts MOL’s half-year result    Increased operating profits in all sectors of international shipping helped Mitsui O.S.K. Lines report a four-fold jump in its net profit for the six-month period ended Sept. 30, to 21 billion yen ($191 million), from Yen6 billion a year ago.
   Group operating income soared to Yen39 billion ($345 million) for the April-September period, up 160 percent from the Yen15 billion result in the same period of 2002.
   Mitsui O.S.K. Lines said that its overseas shipping business — which comprises liner, bulk, car-carrier, tanker and liquefied natural gas activities — increased its operating income by 166 percent in the latest six-month period, to Yen33.5 billion ($305 million). Revenue from overseas shipping was up 10 percent, to Yen399 billion ($3.6 billion).
   The liner division saw a “significant profit increase,” a freight rate recovery, and increasing cargo traffic on east/west routes.
   The dry bulk shipping market “grew steadily” during the latest six-month period, with strong demand for China-bound cargo, leading the company’s    bulk division to earn a profit that “greatly exceeded” that of same period last year.
   Car-carrier, tanker and liquefied natural gas shipping activities also raised their profits.
   “Neither the Iraq war nor the effect of SARS (the severe acute respiratory syndrome) on the Asian economy had significant impact on the ocean shipping industry,” Mitsui O.S.K. Lines said.
   The Japanese group’s freight forwarding and warehousing operations, which come under the logistics business division, had a break-even operational result in the April-September period, about the same as last year. Mitsui O.S.K. Lines said that the profitability of this segment was negatively affected by SARS and the Iraq war.
   Mitsui O.S.K. Lines reported group revenues of Yen483 billion ($4.4 billion) for the latest six-month period, 9 percent more than a year ago.
   The group forecast an annual net income of Yen42 billion ($382 million) and revenues of Yen970 billion ($8.8 billion) for its financial year ending on March 31, 2004. This would significantly exceed the net profit of Yen15 billion and revenues of Yen910 billion reported for the financial year ended on March 31, 2003.