NYK REPORTS 27% JUMP IN NET INCOME

NYK REPORTS 27% JUMP IN NET INCOME    NYK, Japan’s largest shipping group, reported a consolidated net income of 15.8 billion yen ($149 million) for the fiscal year ended March 31, an increase of 27 percent compared to the Yen12.4 billion earned the previous year.
   Operating income jumped by 49 percent, to Yen70.9 billion ($668 million), from Yen47.7 billion.
   Consolidated revenue for the latest fiscal year was Yen1.1 trillion ($10.4 billion), up 2 percent compared to the previous year.
   NYK said that liner shipping accounted for 39 percent of group non-consolidated revenue in the year ended March 31. Tramp and specialized carriers generated 43 percent of group revenue, tankers had a share of 17 percent and others 1 percent.
   “The shipping segment, which forms the core of our group, achieved a better-than-expected improvement thanks to such factors as rate restorations in the North American and European trades against the background of brisk economies in Europe and the U.S. and recovering economies in Asian countries, as well as the reduction of ship operation cost,” NYK said.
   In the car-carrier business, NYK said that car volumes to the Middle East, Central America, South America and Asia were slack, but volumes to North America and Europe were favorable.
   In the logistics segment, NYK said that it made an operating income of Yen2.7 billion ($25 million), up 46 percent, on revenues of Yen160.2 billion ($1.5 billion), up 2 percent. Cargo traffic rose strongly in the group’s cargo forwarding business, NYK said.