Mitsui OSK Lines (MOL) has returned to profit in the first quarter of 2019 thanks largely to improvements at its containership arm.
Net income came in at JPY 12.2bn ($113.8m) for the April to June 2019 period, reversing a year ago loss of JPY 1.7bn.
Containerships saw the largest improvement with ordinary income of JPY 1.7bn against a loss of JPY 4.7bn in the corresponding period last year.
“Due to stabilized services, liftings improved significantly from the same period of the previous year,” MOL said in its results statement.
“The annual contract on the Asia-North America route was concluded at higher freight rates than the previous year, and its impact appeared from May, when the new contract year started.”
MOL said the freight rate market on the Asia-Europe routes was weak due to vessel supply growing faster than demand.
As a result, ONE implemented additional service frequency reductions on both Asia-Europe and Asia-North America routes to minimize a drop in utilization.
