MATSON SEES PROFIT RECOVERY IN FIRST QUARTER

MATSON SEES PROFIT RECOVERY IN FIRST QUARTER    Matson Navigation’s first quarter operating income increased five-fold in the first quarter, to $12.1 million, from $2.4 million in the first quarter of 2002, as the U.S. Jones Act carrier recovered from the negative impact of post-Sept. 11, 2001.
   The recovery brings Matson’s profit virtually back to its level of the first quarter of 2001.
   Revenue from ocean transportation increased by 20 percent in the first quarter of this year, to $186.1 million, from $155.3 million a year ago.
   Alexander & Baldwin, the parent company of Matson, said that improved revenue and operating profit in the first quarter were due to several factors. It cited the recovery of cargo volumes as compared with the period that followed the events of Sept. 11, rate actions taken during 2002 and 2003, and productivity improvements at the Sand Island container terminal.
   Matson’s U.S. mainland/Hawaii service carried 39,000 containers in the latest quarter, 9 percent more than a year earlier, as well as 37,500 automobiles, 53 percent more than in the year-earlier quarter.
   However, Matson’s ocean transportation business was affected by increased vessel operating costs following the re-introduction, in late 2002, of an eighth vessel in the Hawaii service, and higher pension costs.
   Matson’s intermodal arm reported an operating profit of about $500,000, up from about $100,000 in the first quarter of 2002. Revenue from this activity increased by 27 percent, to $51 million.
   “There was no question that our earnings in the first quarter of 2003 would be better than the depressed results in the first quarter of 2002, when the effects of Sept. 11 were still being felt at Matson,” said Allen Doane, president and chief executive officer of Alexander & Baldwin.
   He said that the winding-down of military activity in Iraq creates “more favorable conditions for tourism, a key driver of Hawaii’s economy.”