South Korea's Hanjin Shipping said that the downturn hit container shipping industry was expected to recover from the second half of 2009. It expected a marginal improvement in profitability in the second quarter, with global trade remaining weak and freight rates just beginning to stabilize, and said a recovery in global demand would lift the industry in the second half.

Hanjin posted a KRW 273.8 billion net loss in January to March 2009 period, against a KRW 78.5 billion won net profit a year earlier. Operating loss for the quarter was KRW 249.3 billion, larger than a KRW 140.9 billion loss forecast by Reuters Estimates and container shipping volume dropped by 26% YoY from a year earlier.

Hanjin said in a statement that it planned to cut costs by USD 300 million by the end of 2009 and work on minimizing losses through route rationalization and ship supply adjustment.

(Sourced from Reuters)