Matson Inc. said shipping demand picked up in the second quarter from the first three months of the year, and expects business to improve through 2023.

However, the state’s largest ocean freight transportation company reported after the market closed Thursday that volume from China, Hawaii, Alaska and Guam all declined from a year ago.

Matson, which will report its final earnings Aug. 1, said in its preliminary results that it expects second- quarter net income to come in at a range of $76.3 million to $81.5 million, and earnings per share to range from $2.14 to $2.28 a share. The consensus EPS of three analysts covering the company is for $1.22 a share.

In the second quarter of 2022, Matson earned $162.5 million, or $3.71 a share.

Despite the lackluster guidance, shares of the company spiked 2.9%, or $2.38, to $84.50 after the preliminary earnings were announced. In the regular trading session, Matson’s stock slipped 33 cents to $82.12.

Matson Chairman and CEO Matt Cox said the company’s ocean transportation and business segments performed well despite a challenging business environment and sluggish economic growth. He said freight demand from Matson’s China service was up from the first quarter but generated lower year-over-year volume and freight rates.

“(They) were the primary contributors to the year-over-year decline in our consolidating operating income,” said Cox, adding that retailers continue to carefully manage inventory levels in the face of lower consumer demand.

”We further expect the tradelane to experience a muted peak season, but for Matson, we expect our China service to be near full during the traditional peak season,” he said in a statement. “Absent an economic ‘hard landing’ in the U.S., we continue to expect trade dynamics to gradually improve for the remainder of the year as the Transpacific marketplace transitions to a more normalized level of consumer demand and retail inventory stocking levels. Regardless of the economic environment, we expect to continue to earn a significant rate premium to the Shanghai Containerized Freight Index reflecting our fast and reliable ocean serv­ices and unmatched destination services.”

Matson said for the three months that ended June 30 that Hawaii container volume fell 7.1% primarily due to lower retail-related volume.

Alaska volume decreased 7.2% due to lower export seafood volume from the Alaska-Asia Express serv­ice, among other reasons.

Guam volume fell 7.5%, primarily due to lower general demand.

China volume fell 24.6% primarily due to the discontinuation of its China- California Express (Shanghai- ­Long Beach­-Oakland, Calif.) serv­ice, which operated in the second quarter of 2022 but was shut down in the third quarter. Also, Matson said its China service had lower capacity for its operation between China and Long Beach due to the dry- docking of the Daniel K. Ino­uye vessel and one less sailing.

Matson said it expects second-quarter operating income for its ocean transportation segment to be $78 million to $83 million and its operating income for logistics, which includes coordinating ground transportation and storing cargo for customers, to be $13.5 million to $14.5 million. That compares with operating income of $470 million for ocean transportation and $23.1 million for logistics in the second quarter of 2022.