Singapore’s Neptune Orient Lines on Thursday became the latest container shipping company to reveal the impact of the industry’s worst-ever crisis, when it revealed a first-half net loss of $391m and a slump in revenue.

The figures from NOL, whose core APL shipping line operates the world’s fifth-largest container ship fleet, come in the week that Israel’s Zim announced it expected to burn through $1bn cash over the next four years , while Germany’s Hapag-Lloyd was last week forced to sell a stake in a key container terminal to stay in business . Hong Kong’s Orient Overseas International, owner of the OOCL container line, is expected to announce significant losses on Friday.

Container lines have been hit by huge overcapacity and collapsing demand for the consumer goods that are their main cargo. Both traffic volumes and rates per container shipped have fallen sharply.

Neptune Orient Lines forecast as early as February that it expected to make a full-year loss for 2009 because of market conditions and it reiterated the forecast on Thursday.

However, volume declines slowed in the March-June quarter. While volumes for the first half were down 24 per cent year-on-year, second quarter volumes fell a more modest 19 per cent.

Conditions had improved further since the end of June, Ron Widdows, chief executive, said.

”We are seeing some stability in the operating environment,” he said.

Revenues declined sharply in the second quarter as the fall in revenue per container shipped accelerated. Second quarter revenues were down 39 per cent to $1.39bn, while the figure for the half was down 37 per cent to $2.93bn.

The group reported a $146m net loss for the April-June period against a net profit of $76m a year ago, while the first-half net loss compared with profit of $196m last year.

”For the rest of the year, NOL anticipates a continuation of adverse business operating conditions,” the company said. “This is notwithstanding the cost saving measures that have been undertaken. NOL reiterates that it expects to post a significant full-year loss.”

NOL has reduced its services on the trans-Pacific and Asia-Europe routes, the two busiest long-distance container routes. It had no plans to return 15 idle ships into service, it said. But it reported there had been “good progress” in raising prices on Asia-Europe services, while there had been only partial success on intra-Asia services because of overcapacity.

NOL raised $972m in a rights issue in July , saying that the funds might be used to make new acquisitions. But the group said it saw no specific targets at the moment.

Neptune Orient Lines is one of the world’s most conservatively run container lines and cut capacity far more quickly in the face of the industry downturn than most competitors.