(image: Hyundai Merchant Marine)
SEOUL, Sept 19 (Korea Bizwire) — Hyundai Merchant Marine Co., South Korea’s top shipping firm, is seeing its business performance improve sharply on the back of reduced costs and increased profit, its chief said Tuesday.
“Compared to last year, our performance is improving significantly, based on a virtuous cycle of reduced costs and expanded profit,” Hyundai Merchant CEO Yoo Chang-keun said in a meeting with employees.
Hyundai Merchant continued to suffer an operating loss in the second quarter of the year due to freight rates that have remained weak.
Its operating loss reached 128 billion won (US$112 million) in the April-June period, marking the ninth quarterly operating loss since the second quarter of 2015.
Sales, however, jumped 22.1 percent on-year to 1.24 trillion won over the cited period, it said.
Hyundai Merchant said earlier it expects business conditions, including shipping rates, to improve starting this quarter.
Yoo said the shipping firm will be able to achieve a turnaround during the second half of next year, given its improving financial status and an upturn in business conditions.
(Yonhap)
