Trans-Pacific carrier Matson says its ships are running at full capacity thanks to strong demand for Chinese imports, and it expects the trend to continue through the third quarter, so much so that Matson raised its third-quarter guidance for operating income in its ocean transportation segment to $147 million, which would be a 45% jump over the year-ago period and similar to the results in the just-completed second quarter.

The Hawaii-based carrier on Monday reported second-quarter earnings of $4.27 per share, up 46% from a year earlier and beating a consensus forecast for the quarter of $3.82, according to Capital IQ Estimates, a sister company of the Journal of Commerce within S&P Global.

Total revenue for the quarter rose 9% year over year to $969 million, beating a consensus forecast of $894 million.

Chief Executive Matt Cox said during a conference call Monday that Matson’s express services from China have seen “momentum” since the Lunar New Year and that “freight rates exceeded our expectations.”

The carrier’s second-quarter container volumes from China rose 15% from a year earlier, and Cox expects full-year 2026 volumes to beat last year’s “based on our expectation of continued solid US consumer demand and a stable trading environment in the trans-Pacific trade lane.” He added that Matson’s China services should run near capacity through the remainder of the third quarter.

“We saw a mix of strong e-commerce demand, inventory replenishment and some pull forward of seasonal goods [in the second quarter],” he said.

Frontloading drove Q2 demand

Cox said some of the second-quarter demand may have stemmed from shippers looking to avoid pending fuel surcharges and general rate increases by other ocean carriers while facing US tariff deadlines. Matson itself expects to recover more fuel costs from its shippers in the third quarter.

Cox said major ocean carriers are seeing strong demand across many of their trade lanes, which is tying up capacity and keeping rates firm.

“I think the carriers have done a good job of deploying the right amount of capacity to carry each of these international trades without creating a huge backlog of cargo nor by creating a large surplus of capacity,” he said.

Demand could taper in the fourth quarter, Cox said, adding that operating income in Matson’s ocean transportation segment during the period should fall below the fourth quarter of 2025. But based on the strength of its second-quarter results and expected results in the third quarter, Matson anticipates total operating income for the year to be higher than 2025 “based on our expectations of continued solid US consumer demand and a stable trading environment in the trans-Pacific trade lane,” he said.