Matson 3Q Operating Profit Drops 23 Percent

News was prepared under the information support of Online Daily Newspaper on Hellenic and international Shipping "Hellenic Shipping News".

30 Oct 2009

Alexander & Baldwin said Wednesday that Matson Navigation, its ocean transportation segment, earned an operating profit of $24.2 million in the third quarter ended Sept. 30, down 23 percent from $31.4 million a year ago. Matson’s revenue slid 14 percent to $234.2 million from $272.8 million in the same quarter last year.
Matson’s container volume dropped 12 percent on the Hawaii trade, 3 percent on the Guam trade, but climbed by 1 percent on the China trade during the quarter. The number of autos it carried in the Hawaii trade declined by 3 percent.
A&B said Hawaii container volume continues to be affected by the economic downturn. Auto volume on the Hawaii trade suffered from the timing of rental fleet replacement shipments. China volume improved modestly due to the addition of a third port of call at Xiamen, China.
A&B said Matson’s network utilization rates approached 90 percent.
A&B’s logistics segment, Matson Integrated Logistics, posted an operating profit of $2.2 million, a drop of 57 percent from $5.1 million in the year-earlier quarter, as revenue slid 30 percent to $82.3 million from $118.1 million in last year’s third quarter.

Source: Journal of Commerce