Reuters: MOL considers container spin-off

Reuters: MOL considers container spin-off    MOL's U.S. office had no immediate comment Thursday on a report by Reuters that quoted an officer of the Japanese shipping company on the benefits of spinning off its container-shipping business.
   Reuters quoted Kenichi Yonetani, MOL's senior managing executive officer, saying a spin-off would “increase flexibility and speed up decision-making, consolidating the business with other firms for instance.”
   The report also quoted Yonetani saying there would be more benefits in consolidating the business with a foreign company rather than with a Japanese liner operator, such as NYK or “K” Line.
   It was unclear if Yonetani was talking about a merger of the container business with a non-Japanese carrier or some other sort of consolidation. While the big three Japanese carriers were formed from mergers of many Japanese firms, a merger with a non-Japanese shipping company would be a major development.
   That said, each of the three major Japanese carriers are major partners in one of the three major shipping alliances:
   ' MOL is part of the New World Alliance with APL and Hyundai Merchant Marine.
   ' NYK is part of the Grand Alliance with Hapag-Lloyd, OOCL and Malaysia International Shipping.
   ' “K” Line is part of by CKYH Alliance with COSCO, Yang Ming and Hanjin Shipping.
   Reuters said MOL forecasts a profit in the first half of the year, despite losses in its container business, noting that MOL’s bulk business has benefited from a resurge in dry bulk shipping rates.