Nippon Yusen K.K., Japan's largest shipping line, will slash fleet expansion plans by 10 percent as it scraps some ships and returns others to owners amid slumping demand for transporting cars and containers.
Nippon Yusen will expand its fleet to about 850 ships by the end of March 2011, compared with an earlier plan for 940 ships, Yasumi Kudo, president of the shipping line, said in a Monday interview in Tokyo. The firm had 776 vessels at the end of March 2008.
Nippon Yusen, the world's largest operator of ships for transporting cars, said last month net income probably fell 88 percent for the year that ended March 31.