South Korea's HMM is tackling the shortage of containers in Asia as markets rebound from pandemic restrictions earlier this year.
The scarcity of boxes has hit the main East-West trade lanes and is now spreading to the intra-Asia market, the ship operator said.
Intra-Asia freight rates have risen as lines have tried to reduce a backlog of containers left over from blank sailings and vessel delays since China’s Golden Week holidays in October.
"HMM is highly geared towards empty evacuation to Asia from elsewhere including the US, Europe, and west Asia regions in an effort to enhance the logistics flow and ease the situation," the company added.
Volumes to hold up
Although the fourth quarter is normally a "traditional slack season", transported volumes are expected to remain strong as retailers in the US and Europe have continued to replenish inventories ahead of the year-end holidays and the Chinese New Year in 2021, HMM added.
But the company warned the re-emergence of the Covid-19 pandemic in the winter season is "indeed a serious threat" to the global economy.
The company reported a net profit in the third quarter was $20.5m, compared to a loss of $103.4m during the same period of 2019.
Revenue improved by 18.7% to $1.43bn.
Operating profit was $230.7m, against a loss of $38.8m a year ago — and nearly double that of the second quarter.
This was primarily driven by efficient fleet operations, including HMM's 12 huge new 24,000-teu containerships, a string of cost-cutting measures, and increased freight rates.
Container volumes dropped 2.8% to 1.04m teu, against 1.07m teu a year ago.
HMM also has five VLCCs and a number of bulkers.
