An 11% revenue increase in the second quarter helped NOL post a net profit increase in the quarter, but revenues for the first half were up only 5% and profits fell by 27% when compared with the same periods a year ago.
Singapore-based NOL said in its announcement that the second-quarter numbers point to a general improvement in market conditions for its liner shipping operations. Its container shipping business unit, APL, posted year-to-date revenue increases of 7% on 1.1 million forty-foot-equivalent units handled during the period. That was an 11% increase of the same period a year earlier.
The company’s third-party logistics unit, APL Logistics, posted a 2% improvement in revenues in the second quarter but a 2% decline year to date.
“We have made progress with the realignment of the logistics business,” said Thomas Held, group president and CEO. “This has been driven by new business wins, the launch of new products, and a general increase in demand for logistics services in our key market segments,” he continued.
NOL’s liner business placed eight high-speed, 10,000 twenty-foot-equivalent-unit (TEU) vessels to be deployed in the Asia-Europe trade and earlier announced a charter arrangement for five new 7,000 TEU vessels for deployment in the transpacific trade. APL also launched a Suez Express service connecting South East Asia and the Indian Subcontinent with the US East Coast via the Suez Canal.
NOL also had expansions underway in its terminal network in Vietnam and on the US West Coast. It made a major investment in the Maasvlakte 2 terminal in the Port of Rotterdam.
Its 3PL group launched OceanGuaranteed, a less-than-container load service that provides time-definite delivery times on US-bound shipments. A full container load product will soon complement this service, which will also be time-definite. NOL reported OceanGuaranteed volumes are continuing to outpace forecasts.
