Singapore-headquartered NOL reported a second quarter profit of $890m, however, this dropped to just $3m once the one time gain from the sale of APL Logistics to Kintetsu Worldwide Express. This compared to a loss of $54m in the quarter of a year earlier.
For the first half of 2015 the container shipping company remained in the red with an $8m loss compared to a $152m loss in the first half of 2014.
The improved result came despite sharply declining container freight rates for liner shipping brand APL and therefore revenues for the company.
Revenues in the second quarter of 2015 declined a steep 24% to $1.55bn compared $2.05bn in the same period a year earlier. For the first half of 2015 revenues dropped 18% to $3.54bn, against $4.33bn in the corresponding period in 2014.
“The group’s container shipping business continued to face a challenging environment characterised by over-capacity and weak market demand. Nonetheless, APL reversed a core EBIT loss in the second quarter last year to a positive position this year,” said NOL group president and ceo Ng Yat Chung.
Commenting on freight rates in an earnings call Ng said: “We saw freight rates fall across all trade lanes to multi-year lows.
“Our cost management of operational costs and yield has helped offset a volume decrease as well as the fall down in freight rates.”
Looking ahead he said freight rates would continue to face downward pressure due to persistent overcapacity and weak trade growth.
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