Unlock stock picks and a broker-level newsfeed that powers Wall Street.

Q1 2025 Matson Inc Earnings Call

In This Article:

Participants

Justin Schoenberg; Investor Relations; Matson Inc

Matthew Cox; Chairman of the Board, Chief Executive Officer; Matson Inc

Joel Wine; Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer; Matson Inc

Daniel Imbro; Analyst; Stephens Inc.

Jacob Lacks; Analyst; Wolfe Research

Omar Nokta; Analyst; Jefferies

Benjamin Nolan; Analyst; Stifel Nicolaus and Company, Incorporated

Presentation

Operator

Thank you for standing by, and welcome to Matson's first-quarter 2025 financial results conference call. (Operator Instructions) As a reminder, today's program is being recorded. And now I'd like to introduce your host for today's program, Justin Schoenberg, Investor Relations and Corporate Development at Matson. Please go ahead, sir.

Justin Schoenberg

Thank you. Joining me on the call today are Matt Cox, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer; and Joel Wine, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. Slides from this presentation are available for download at our website www.matson.com, under the Investors tab. Before we begin, I would like to remind you that during the course of this call, we will make forward-looking statements within the meaning of the federal securities laws regarding expectations, predictions, projections or future events. We believe that our expectations and assumptions are reasonable.
We caution you to consider the risk factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements in the press release, the presentation slides and this conference call. These risk factors are described in our press release and position and are more fully detailed under the caption Risk Factors on Pages 12 to 23 of our Form 10-K filed on February 28, 2025, and in our subsequent filings with the SEC. Please also note that the date of this conference call is May 5, 2025, and any forward-looking statements that we make today are based on assumptions as of this date. We undertake no obligation to update these forward-looking statements. I will now turn the call over to Matt.

Matthew Cox

Thanks, Justin, and thanks to those on the call. Starting on slide 3. Our first quarter financial performance was as expected, with significantly higher year-over-year consolidated operating income. The year-over-year increase was primarily driven by our China service, which benefited from the carryover of elevated freight rates from the fourth quarter of 2024, combined with healthy freight demand following the traditional post-Lunar New Year period. In our domestic trade lanes, we saw higher year-over-year volume in Hawaii and Alaska and a lower year-over-year volume in Guam.
In logistics, our operating income was lower year-over-year, primarily due to a lower contribution from freight forwarding and transportation brokerage, partially offset by a higher contribution from supply chain management. Looking ahead, we are lowering our 2025 outlook due to the significant uncertainty regarding tariffs and global trade, regulatory measures, the trajectory of the US economy and other geopolitical factors. I will now go through the first quarter performance of our trade lanes, SSAT and logistics. So please turn to the next slide.
Hawaii container volume for the first quarter increased 3.2% year-over-year due to the dry docking of a competitor's vessel. Excluding the volume related to the dry docking of competitor's vessel, Hawaii container volume would have been roughly flat year-over-year. For the full year 2025, we expect volume to be comparable to the level in 2024, reflecting modest economic growth in Hawaii and stable market share. Please turn to slide 5. According to UHERO's February economic report, the Hawaii economy remained stable with a low unemployment rate, strong construction activity and stable tourism, offset by challenging population growth and high inflation and interest rates.
Hawaii is experiencing solid construction activity from both public and private sector projects including rebuilding efforts on Maui following the wildfires in 2023 with elevated demand for construction workers. With respect to tourism, international tourist rivals continue to be well below pre-pandemic levels, and tourist arrivals to Maui remains on a slow recovery path. Moving to our China service on slide 6. We saw significantly higher freight rates year-over-year as the elevated freight rates from the fourth quarter of 2024 carried into the first quarter. Matson's volume in the first quarter of 2025 was 1.4% lower year-over-year.
Please turn to slide 7. Currently, there is significant uncertainty regarding tariffs and global trade, regulatory measures, the trajectory of the US economy and other geopolitical factors. Since the tariffs were implemented in April, our container volume has declined approximately 30% year-over-year. Given the pronounced market decline in demand in the Transpacific in April, coupled with limited visibility to our container demand, we expect container volume and average freight rates in the second quarter to be lower year-over-year.
At the moment, it's difficult to know if these lower volume levels are transitory or will persist for a longer time in 2025. And the duration of this lower demand period will likely depend on active negotiations taking place across the supply chain and the timing of potential amendments to the tariffs. As such, for the full year 2025, we also expect container volume and average freight rates to be lower year-over-year. We continue to work closely with our Asia transshipment partners as our customers look at options to diversify and grow their manufacturing locations. Many of our customers moved to a China Plus One strategy a few years ago to diversify their operations, and we expect this trend to continue.
We will continue to follow our customers as they reposition and expand their manufacturing footprint in response to changing tariffs as part of our catchment basin strategy in Asia. During the first quarter, we announced a new direct service connecting Ho Chi Minh to our CLX and Mac Shanghai departures. This development is a testament to our brand recognition in Asia, and our ability to provide the fastest connecting times out of Vietnam, Ho Chi Minh will be our second direct connection in Vietnam and our expansion is based on the success customer feedback we received since launching our inaugural direct service connection from Haifeng two years ago.
As a result, in the near term, we set higher volume from Vietnam from transshipments as our customers manage their freight in an unsettled environment. We believe we are well positioned with multiyear transshipment relationships to scale up the services as expedited freight volume grow in the region.
We expect the uncertain environment to accelerate the diversification of our catchment basin in Asia. And in addition to Vietnam, we are already carrying freight originating in Cambodia, Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, India and the Philippines. Please turn to the next slide. We believe we're in the early innings of US-China trade negotiations and expect disruptive conditions in the transpacific with ocean carriers blanking China sailings and implementing service changes due to lower volume in response to the tariffs. We have also seen some carriers add port calls and increase capacity and allocation and strings from other Asia origins.
At some point though, retailers will need to restock their shelves or risk significant inventory issues. We also expect that consumer demand for e-commerce goods will continue to grow. In the meantime, we remain a trusted supply chain partner to our customers and expect to run our business like we always have with a focus on speed, on-time arrivals, early access to cargo and customer service. As I mentioned earlier, the transshipment partners in the region provide opportunities for further diversification of where our freight is originated. And lastly, we have the resources and assets to move quickly to adapt to a changing environment and find opportunities.
For the last 20 years, our China service has gone through many significant disruptive environments and time and time again, it is shown to be a critical provider of expedited ocean service to existing and new customers. I see this period of uncertainty and disruption is an opportunity for Matson to do what it does best for its customers, meeting the evolving challenges and delivering freight fast and reliably, given our competitive advantages. Please turn to the next slide. On April 17, the USTR finalized its noted under Section 301 as a follow-up to the President's executive order on April 9. The announcement confirmed that new targeted port fees will be applied to Chinese vessel owners and operators and Chinese-built vessels.
Based on our review, we believe that Matson is part of a group of small vessel operators who received exemptions from the USTR. The USTR also proposed additional duties on ship-to-shore cranes, containers and certain chassis. The proposal is open to comment and depending on its final form, may impact how we procure our equipment. In summary, we believe that we are exempt from the USTR for now based on the size of our vessels, but will likely face higher container equipment costs in the future. We also remain negatively impacted directly by lower volume and indirectly by merchandise tariffs paid by our customers.
Please turn to the next slide. In Guam, Matson's container volume in the first quarter of 2025 decreased 14.3% year-over-year. The decrease was primarily due to lower demand from retail and food and beverage segments. In the near term, we expect Guam economy to remain stable with a slow recovery in tourism, a low unemployment rate and some increase in construction activity. As such, for 2025, we expect container volume to approach the level achieved last year.
Please turn to the next slide. In Alaska, Matson's container volume in the first quarter of 2025 increased 4.8% year-over-year. The increase was due to higher northbound volume, partially offset by an additional sailing in the year ago period. In the near term, we expect continued economic growth in Alaska, supported by low unemployment rate, jobs growth and continued oil and gas exploration and production activity. As such, for 2025, we expect container volume to be comparable to the level achieved last year.
Please turn to slide 12. In the first quarter, our SSA Terminal joint venture contributed $6.6 million, representing a year-over-year decrease of $6.2 million. The increase was primarily due to higher lift volume. For 2025, we expect the contribution from SSAT to be lower than the $17.4 million achieved last year without taking into account the $18.4 million impairment charge at SSAT during the fourth quarter of 2024. Turning now to Logistics on slide 13.
Operating income in the first quarter came in at $8.5 million or $800,000 lower than the result in the year-ago period. The decrease was primarily due to a lower contribution from freight forwarding and transportation brokerage partially offset by a higher contribution from supply chain management. For 2025, we expect operating income to be lower than the level achieved in 2024 due to a challenging environment for all of our business lines. I will now turn the call over to Joel for a review of our financial performance. Joel?