JAPANESE owned but Singapore based Ocean Network Express (ONE), the world's sixth-largest shipping line, posted a 91 per cent decline in year-on-year second quarter net profit to US$513 million.

However, its bottom line was still much better than it was pre-Covid. In April-June 2019, ONE reported net income of $5 million. In April-June 2018, it lost $120 million.

ONE's Asia-US rates in the most recent quarter were down 68 per cent from the peak in July-September 2022, but were still 22 per cent above rates at this time of year in 2019 and 26 per cent above 2018 levels.

ONE's average Asia-Europe rates in April-June were down 75 per cent from the high in January-March 2022 but still 39 per cent above both 2018 and 2019 levels.

"Long-term contract freight rates fell sharply in both North America and Europe compared to [January-March] and the same period last year, pulled down by short-term freight rates," ONE said.

ONE's utilisation level in the Asia-US trade fell to 82 per cent in April-June. During the Covid boom, it hovered around 100 per cent. Its utilisation rate in April-June 2019 was 86 per cent.