“K” LINE’S SHINTANI IS UPBEAT ABOUT PROFITS

KNGT LOGISTICS CHANGES NAME TO CONCENTREK

“K” LINE’S SHINTANI IS UPBEAT ABOUT PROFITS

   Isao Shintani, president of the Japanese shipping group “K” Line, said that the group’s financial outlook is positive for the current financial year, due to end in March.
   In a new year message to all group staff, Shintani said that operating profits for the first half of the fiscal year — the April-September 1999 period — were the best since 1974.
   “K” Line reported half-year revenues of 181 billion yen ($1.7 billion) and operating profits of Yen9.8 billion ($91 million).
   For the full year, Shintani predicts that “K” Line’s revenues will rise to Yen360 billion ($3.6 billion), with an operating profit of Yen16 billion ($160 million) and a net profit for the year of Yen4 billion ($40 million).
   “K” Line’s president said that the group’s container shipping sector had been in the red for a long time due to “exposure to the harshest of competition from the Asian shipping lines.” But results from container shipping moved into the black during the first half of the financial year as a result of increased freight rates and cost reductions.
   “Such favorable results are encouraging and lead us to be more positive in considering future business development,” Shintani said.
   In the wake of the recent mergers in Japan between NYK and Showa and between Mitsui O.S.K. Lines and Navix, Shintani reaffirmed that there is no change in “K” Line’s policy of staying independent.
   “Scale-wise the company has already sufficiently developed to be large enough to satisfy customer needs and continuously provide price-competitive services to them,” Shintani said.