Singapore's Neptune Orient Lines (NOL), the world's fourth-biggest container shipping firm, said on Monday it carried 32 percent more containers in the four weeks to April 2 from a year ago.

NOL said in a statement it carried the equivalent of 204,400 40-foot containers (FEUs) on its ships in the period, up from 155,400 a year earlier.

The average revenue from each container rose 12 percent from a year ago to $2,622, faster than the 8 percent increase in the four-week period to March 5, signalling a recovery in the shipping sector.

The improvement was due to higher shipping volumes from the Transpacific and Intra-Asia trade routes as well as an improvement in freight rates, NOL said. (Reuters)