HMM has become the latest major liner operator to post a substantial increase in full-year results.
The South Korean shipowner said on Monday that it had made a net profit of KRW 5.33trn ($4.4bn) — a 40-fold year-on-year increase — while operating profit of KRW 7.3trn was a sevenfold increase on the KRW 981bn 12 months earlier.
Revenue more than doubled to KRW 13.8trn from the KRW 6.4trn achieved in 2020.
The world’s eighth-largest liner operator attributed the record revenue and profit to a combination of high freight rates and efficient fleet operations.
It has added 20 new container ships to its fleet over the past two years, including a dozen 24,000-teu giants.
“Our operating profit last year offset operating losses we had suffered for nine years between 2011 and 2019,” HMM said.
“Our debt-to-equity ratio, which reached 2,000% in 2015, dropped to 73% last year...
“The fourth quarter is usually an off-season for the container shipping business, but increased loads for Asia-America routes, due to the major promotions like Black Friday, boosted the demand for shipping and drove up prices.”
Last June, HMM split an order for 12 13,000-teu containerships between Hyundai Heavy Industries and Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering.
Under the deals, worth $1.57bn, each South Korean shipyard will build six of the neo-panamaxes and deliver them in the first half of 2024.
All will be installed with hybrid scrubbers and designed to be LNG-ready.
HMM has a fleet of close to 80 container ships, of which 83% are fitted with scrubbers, against an industry average of 30.8%, according to Alphaliner.
State-run Korea Development Bank (KDB) has made no secret of its desire to gradually sell part of its stake in HMM.
In early January, TradeWinds reported that rival domestic container ship owner SM Line had bought a minor stake in HMM, spending $14m to build a stake of 0.49%.
KDB and Korea Ocean Business Corp own a combined 44% of HMM, but this could rise to more than 70% if bonds are converted into equity.
