“K” Line’s net income doubles in fiscal year 2002/2003

“K” Line’s net income doubles in fiscal year 2002/2003

“K” Line’s net income doubles in fiscal year 2002/2003

   The Japanese group “K” Line doubled its net income in the fiscal year ended March 31, to 10.4 billion yen ($86 million) from Yen4.8 billion in the 2001-2002 fiscal year.
   Group operating income increased to Yen29.3 billion ($244 million) from Yen19 billion in the previous year.
   Group consolidated revenue increased 11 percent to Yen632.7 billion ($5.3 billion) against Yen571 billion for the 2001-2002 fiscal year.
   “K” Line said it has worked on strengthening its competitiveness, expanding its business scale and lowering its costs.
   The Japanese group said its container-shipping arm had the same operating income in fiscal year 2002-2003 as in the previous year, despite adverse factors. It did not quantify its operating result from container shipping.
   “K” Line said it was forced to accept “a huge drop of ocean freight rates” in early 2002, but container cargo volumes grew strongly, particularly from China.
   Overall, operational revenues “stood much better than last year,” it said.
   “K” Line cited several adverse factors in container shipping, such as the “huge fall in freight rates” mainly in the North American trade, the hike in bunker price and the port lockout on the West Coast of the United States due to a labor dispute. But the group said it “could prevail over them by carrying out maximum efforts for reduction in ship costs through injection of the newbuildings, curtailment of operational costs and expenses and rationalization of less profitable routes.”
   For the current fiscal year ending March 31, 2004, “K” Line expects to increase its operating income from container shipping thanks to cost reductions, voyage rationalizations and “our work on normalization of ocean freight rates.”