News / Cost-cutting and higher freight rates give HMM's bottom line a lift in Q1

South Korean carrier HMM today reported a $55m net loss for the first quarter – a dramatic 63.2% improvement on the $149m it lost in the same period last year.

The carrier said its better bottom line was largely due to its cost-cutting efforts, as revenues remained largely unchanged year on year, at $1.1bn.

That shows freight rates held up surprisingly well during the period, as HMM volumes declined by 18.7% to 890,000 teu as the fallout from the pandemic began to ...