Korea's Hanjin Shipping narrowed its net loss by 37.8 percent to US$386 million in 2014 on the back of much improved operating earnings.

Despite a four percent decline in container throughput during the year to 4.5 million TEU, revenues, including bulk shipping, reached $8.2 billion, delivering an operating profit of $750 million compared to 2013's $376 million operating loss.

"With continued economic growth of the US market and positive influence of European Central Bank's quantitative easing, the container shipping market is likely to stabilise," said a Hanjin statement accompanying the results.

"Cost structure improvement measures have secured our cost competitiveness and together with falling oil prices, it is likely that our figures will improve continuously," the statement said.

The container division posted revenues of $7.7 billion, down 7.5 percent year on year with operating profit coming in at $130 million compared to the previous year's loss of $289 million.