MOL SWITCHES INVESTMENT FROM LINER TO BULK SHIPPING

    Mitsui O.S.K. Lines has frozen all its investment in the liner shipping sector for the time being.
    "Liner shipping will become good business again in the future," says MOL President Masaharu Ikuta," but unfortunately it is not now."
    MOL’s merger with bulk specialist Navix Lines on April 1 made it the largest shipping group in the world. This also pushed up the proportion of group revenues generated from the bulk shipping.
    By contrast, the percentage of group revenues contributed by liner shipping fell from 48 percent to 40 percent. Current, low investments in liner shipping are set to reduce the importance of the liner sector still further within the Japanese group.
    Investments in bulk ships and tankers, backed by long-term bulk and tanker contracts in trade with Japan, are seen as comparatively safer.
Asked whether MOL would be prepared to dispose of or merge its liner division, Ikuta replied: "I don’t exclude any good opportunity to merge."

FreightWaves Staff