Japanese shipping and transportation giant NYK is forecasting that pre-tax profit will grow by around 13 per cent in the next fiscal year, starting from April 1, 2008, boosted by higher earnings from container shipping and narrower losses from its air freight business.
According to Bloomberg, the company anticipates a pre-tax profit of JPY200 billion (US$1.83 billion) this fiscal year.
Container shipping was the company's second-largest business last year.Its pre-tax profit should more than double to JPY20 billion from the JPY9.5 billion earned last year, say analysts as rates increase on North America routes.
"The container business looks promising,'' Yoshihisa Miyamoto, an analyst at Okasan Securities Co, was cited as saying in the report. "Nippon Yusen is managing to reel in losses at its air cargo business,''
Nippon Cargo Airlines Co., the company's air transport unit, is expected to lower its pre-tax loss next fiscal year to JPY16.5 billion from a projected JPY26.5 billion this fiscal year, as the addition of new, more fuel-efficient aircraft and the retirement of older planes help cut costs, Makoto Igarashi, head of NYK's investor relations departments, told Bloomberg in an interview.
NYK earlier announced a plan to speed up the retirement of its Boeing 747- 200 freighters by one year to remove all planes from service by the end of March, bringing the number of such aircraft in service to 10 by March 2009.
Mr Igarashi also said the shipping line will expand its fleet by at least 35 per cent to over 1,000 vessels by the end of March 2014, up from 742 ships. By comparison, rival MOL will increase its fleet to 1,000 ships by the end of March 2010 and to 1,200 by the end of March 2013, according to its mid-term business plan, up from a current 803 ships.
|
