Korean boxship and VLCC owner HMM has been pushed to a higher loss in the third quarter as fuel costs rose.
The company said the net deficit was KRW 166.7bn ($146.7m), from KRW 60.3m in the same period of 2017.
Revenue was KRW 1.42 trillion, up 10% year-on-year, with container volumes up 12.8% to 1.18m teu.
But bunker cost increased by KRW 73.1bn.
HMM is introducing a bunker surcharge to meet the costs of the IMO's 2020 fuel rules.
"In spite of cost-cutting efforts and improvement in its revenue and handling volume, net loss continued in Q3 due to increase in bunker costs and delay in regional rate recovery," it said.
US trade looking good
Looking ahead, it is expecting a "continuous market up trend" in US trade but slow growth for Europe.
"However, a risk of volume decrease attributed to US-China trade war also resides in the shipping market," it said.
"Through fleet expansion and acquisition of good assets, HMM will improve its cost structure and cut logistics costs in order to strengthen its sales competitiveness," it added.
It already has 20 containerships on order at Hyundai Heavy Industries (HHI), Samsung Heavy Industries and DSME.
