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SEOUL—Hanjin
Shipping Co., the third-largest line on trans-Pacific
routes, climbed to the highest in more than six months
in Seoul trading on speculation it will be able to raise
rates for carrying cargo to the US.
South Korea’s
largest shipping line rose 3.7 percent to 49,250 won at
noon Monday. The stock has gained 24 percent this year,
compared with a 1.1-percent decline for the Kospi index.
Hanjin
Shipping, Neptune Orient Lines Ltd. and other lines aim
to raise rates for shipments to the
US
because of surging fuel costs and optimism about rising
demand in the world’s largest economy. The companies and
their customers are currently in the final stages of
annual discussions about rates.
“There
are expectations that shipping lines will be able to
increase rates on transpacific trade,” said Song Jae Hak,
an analyst at Woori Investment & Securities Co. in
Seoul. “That will help them report higher earnings.” He
rates Hanjin Shipping shares a “buy.”
Trade
volume is expected to increase from the second quarter
as measures to boost the US economy take effect, Hanjin
Shipping said in its full first-quarter earnings report
on May 15.
Neptune
Orient, Southeast Asia’s largest container-shipping
line, said on May 14 that it moved 232,000 40-foot
standard containers on trans-Pacific routes in the first
quarter, 16 percent more than a year earlier.
Neptune
Orient didn’t trade Monday because of a holiday in
Singapore. Evergreen Marine Corp., the largest line on
trans-Pacific routes, fell 1.3 percent to NT$29.80 in
Taipei.
The
price of 380 Centistoke bunker fuel, used by ships, rose
2.2 percent to a record $594.50 a ton in
Singapore
on May 16, according to Bloomberg data. (Bloomberg) |
