NYK SEES 9-PERCENT LOWER OPERATING PROFIT, ADVERSE TRENDS

NYK SEES 9-PERCENT LOWER OPERATING PROFIT, ADVERSE TRENDS    Nippon Yusen Kabushiki Kaisha (NYK Line), the largest Japanese shipping group, reported a 9-percent fall in operating profit for the six-month period to Sept. 30, to 41.2 billion yen ($345 million), as its container shipping, air freight forwarding and other group activities suffered from the economic and market downturn.
   For the first half of its fiscal year beginning April 1, NYK reported a net income of Yen15.5 billion ($130 million), up from Yen14.5 billion in April/September of last year. Group consolidated revenue increased by 4 percent, to Yen585.3 billion ($4.9 billion), from Yen562.7 billion.
   “In regard to shipping, the core business of our group, the liner division witnessed worse than expected results regarding both the growth rate for cargo liftings and the average freight rates in the North American, European, Oceanian, Asian and other liner trades,” NYK said.
   NYK warned that conditions in liner shipping remain unpredictable “because of concerns about the fall in demand in the U.S.”
   Concerning its car-carrier activities, NYK reported a fall in exports of new cars from Japan to the European and U.S. markets.
   Yusen Air & Sea Service, the forwarding arm of NYK, experienced a sharp decline in airfreight traffic.
   “As a result, our logistics services division suffered falls in both sales and profits in the half-year term under review,” NYK said.
   NYK also reported that it has bought 5.4 million shares of its own common stock up to Sept. 30 this year.
   The Japanese group expressed concern that its liner division “will see a fall in freight rates because of the widening gap between supply and demand resulting from the successive completion of new containerships, decreased consumption and stagnation in cargo traffic.”