Workers at cash-rich container lines continue to pocket big year-end bonuses.
Caixin Global has reported that employees at China's state-owned Cosco Shipping Holdings have received a payout worth up to 30 times their monthly salaries.
Cosco is doling out the cash to workers including sales and marketing staff, Caixin said, citing employees at the company.
The group's earnings jumped 1,651% to CNY 67.6bn ($10.7bn) in the first three quarters of 2021, according to a company filing, as boxship markets boomed.
The spot rate for a 40-foot container to the US from Asia soared to more than $20,000 last year.
Taiwan's Evergreen has already reportedly paid out bonuses of more than 40 months pay to some of its employees.
Two entry-level supervisors at Evergreen told a Taiwanese news agency that they received a combined bonus of TWD5m ($180,000).
The two employees were said to have a base salary of $2,166 each per month and have been working for the company for more than 10 years.
Other staff were reported to have received about $72,000.
Evergreen — Taiwan's largest liner company and the seventh-largest worldwide according to Alphaliner — logged a net profit of TWD 177bn ($6.3bn) for the first nine months of this year.
Operating revenues came in at TWD 333bn, with nearly half of that coming in the third quarter.
Marseille-based CMA CGM was also reported to have distributed the equivalent of eight weeks wages to seafarers and workers.
And about 80,000 workers at Denmark's AP Moller-Maersk will pocket an extra $1,000 in their pay packets.
But this was the same level as the previous year despite a huge jump in earnings.
