South Korea's largest container company, HMM, continued its strong quarterly results this year, beating expectations in the third quarter with net profit of $1.8 billion on revenue of $3.6 billion. In the nine months to September 30, net profit more than quadrupled to 6.4 billion dollars.

But the quarter-on-quarter results showed that profits continued to decline. In the third quarter, net profit fell 11%, compared with 2.1 billion US dollars in the second quarter, which was lower than the record 2.3 billion US dollars in the first quarter.

HMM said "considerable uncertainty" could dampen container demand in the coming months. These uncertainties, including inflation, the slowdown of the world economy, the easing of port congestion and the increase of ship capacity, are still prevalent and market volatility is expected to continue in the coming months.

HMM is a major player across the Pacific with 16 services from Asia to the West and East coasts of the United States. It has grown into the world's largest multimodal shipping company. The fleet includes container fleets, LNG, tankers, bulk carriers, etc.

HMM said the company's earnings in 2022 were mainly due to high freight rates and efficient fleet operations. Its goal is to respond to challenging prospects by ensuring high-yield goods to maximize profitability and improve operational efficiency to reduce costs.

In addition, in July this year, HMM announced a medium-and long-term strategy that "will actively work to meet future challenges and lay a solid foundation for sustainable growth. It says HMM aims to be climate neutral by 2050.