MOL boss forecasts another record loss making year
Mitsui OSK Lines (MOL) boss Koichi Muto has forecast another record loss making year in 2013 as poor dry bulk and tanker markets take their toll, Seatrade Asia online reports.
“Following on from our biggest loss ever in the previous fiscal year, MOL is projecting yet another loss of the same magnitude for the current fiscal year,” Muto, president of MOL, said in his 2013 New Year message. MOL is forecasting a JPY24bn loss for its 2012 financial year ended 31 March 2013.
While external challenges such as the economic slowdown in Europe, US and China, the appreciation of the Japanese Yen and high bunker prices were factors behind MOL’s losses Muto said the company also needed to look at itself and its exposure to the dry bulk and tanker spot markets.
“MOL’s free tonnages, namely tonnages with no committed contracts, have been operating at a large loss as a result of an unprecedented decline in dry bulker and tanker freight rates,” he said.
“MOL’s free tonnages, which had generated large earnings when freight rates were buoyant, recorded losses that have significantly eroded the stable earnings accumulated through steady sales efforts in the past. As a result, the company as a whole fell into the red.”
Muto said the Japanese shipowner must reduce its free tonnage exposure in the market and work to win as much cargo as possible, while gauging the right timing.
