Icelandic shipowner Eimskip has laid off 10% of its staff this year as it seeks to lower costs due to the potential long-term effects of the coronavirus.
The boxship and reefer player said it had started to see positive financial impacts from its streamlining last year, when it closed and merged offices.
Since the start of the year, the company has also chopped 170 full-time posts.
This has involved all levels in the company, including management.
"For me and the management team the journey of integrating and streamlining the operation has not been easy, especially not regarding reduction of employees," chief executive Vilhelm Mar Thorsteinsson said.
"It has nevertheless been important considering the financial results and negative liner volume development for the last couple of years. We have invested considerably in automation and reformation of processes and working procedures which supports these measures."
In March, Eimskip had said it was making 73 staff redundant.
Of the full-time employees slated to lose their jobs at that time, 47 of them were based in Iceland.
Salary expenses were €3m ($3.24m) lower in the first three months, a drop of 9.1% year on year.
Virus impact to last all year
The company expects the coronavirus pandemic to have a negative effect on demand for cargo services throughout the year.
But it said reefer cargo, which it specialises in, is likely to be less affected.
The net loss for the period amounted to € 4.9m, compared to €2.5m for the same quarter of 2019.
Revenue was €162m, a decrease of €2.3m as volumes fell.
Ebitda dipped to €9.3m, compared to €13.2m in the same quarter last year.
The company banked €9.8m from selling ships and other assets.
Eimskip said its cash balance is good and it has paid instalments amounting to €7m on a revolving credit facility.
