Despite ongoing challenges related to COVID-19, Matson, Inc. performed well in the third quarter, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Matt Cox announced.
“Our China service, consisting of the CLX and CLX+ services, was the primary driver of the increase in consolidated operating income year-over-year as a result of strong demand for our expedited ocean services and ongoing challenges in the transpacific air freight markets,” Cox said in a statement. “I am confident that we can make the CLX+ a permanent service because of Matson’s 15-year track record of operating our industry leading expedited CLX service in the transpacific trade lane, the introduction of our new Alaska-to-Asia Express (AAX) service for Alaska seafood exports to Asia as part of the CLX+ westbound return trip to China, and the likelihood of continued favorable transpacific trade lane supply and demand dynamics going forward.”
He added that in other core tradelanes, Matson saw an improvement in freight volume in each of the tradelanes from the second quarter amid the height of the pandemic as freight demand got better as local economies reopened.
Although ongoing tourism restrictions and a second shelter-in-place order in the later part of the third quarter affected demand for freight, Hawaii volume reached the level achieved in the previous year quarter, he said. Matson also saw “modestly higher year-over-year volume growth” in Alaska and Guam, while Logistics operating income rose year-over-year.
