Taiwan’s Evergreen Marine Corp reported strong first-half earnings despite a weakening of spot freight rates for container ships.
In a regulatory filing to the Taiwan Stock Exchange, Evergreen disclosed a record profit of TWD 102.3bn ($3.4bn) for the second quarter, up 143% from the same period last year.
Consolidated revenue between April and June was TWD 175bn, an increase of 75% from the same quarter in 2021.
For the first half of the year, net profit soared to $7bn from $3bn. Revenue amounted to $11.5bn compared with $6.3bn from a year ago.
Evergreen said it has benefited from overall high freight rates in the container ship market and the delivery of new vessels.
Its fleet capacity rose by 260,000 teu last year after it took delivery of 33 new vessels, including the 24,000-teu Ever Ace (built 2021).
Fleet capacity is set to increase by 108,000 teu this year after delivery of nine newbuildings.
The container ship market is under pressure amid growing concerns about fleet overcapacity and a slowdown in the global economy that saw freight rates weaken.
Despite a softer market, Evergreen said about 80% of its revenue comes from the Asia to Europe and Asia to North America routes, with rates on these routes still significantly higher than in the first half of 2021.
According to Alphaliner, Evergreen is the second-largest liner company in Asia and the sixth-largest in the world, with capacity of 1.58m teu. It controls 203 vessels — 125 owned and 78 chartered-in.
Alphaliner lists Evergreen with 56 newbuildings on order. Clarksons’ Shipping Intelligence Network, however, counts 49.
