HMM Q1 losses narrow on decreased costs

SEOUL, May 15 (Yonhap) -- HMM Co., South Korea's biggest shipping company by sales, said Friday that its net losses narrowed in the first quarter from a year earlier due to decreased operating costs and increased shipping charges.

Net losses narrowed to 65.6 billion won (US$53.3 million) in the January-March period from 178.5 billion won a year earlier, the company said in a statement.

HMM said a sharp hike in shipping charges, its cost-cutting efforts and securing high-value shipping deals helped the company to reduce its shortfall.

Operating losses sharply narrowed to 2 billion won in the first quarter from a 105.7 billion won deficit a year ago. Sales fell 0.2 percent on-year to 1.31 trillion won during the cited period, the company said.

entropy@yna.co.kr
(END)