News / Booming revenues swell Evergreen H1 profit nearly 30 times

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Taiwanese liner operator Evergreen’s net profit shot up 29-fold in the first half of this year to $3.2bn, thanks to continuing equipment and capacity shortages pushing up rates.

Revenue doubled, to $6.8bn, as runaway freight rates bring unprecedented earnings to liner operators.

On Friday, Evergreen president Eric Hsieh said the carrier would buy 10,000 containers from Dong Fang International, for $64.65m, the second time in a year Evergreen has gone to the Cosco subsidiary for equipment, having ordered 28,000 containers, for $141.17m in March.

And last month, Evergreen ordered 6,000 new reefer boxes from China’s Guangdong Fuwa Equipment Manufacturing.

Evergreen will also re-allocate the registered ownership of some of its ships. Seven 1,600 teu vessels  now held by a Panama-incorporated special purpose vehicle, Gaining Enterprises, to a Hong Kong-incorporated subsidiary, Evergreen Marine (Hong Kong), for $67.11m.

And a 7,000 teu ship registered to another Panama-incorporated subsidiary, Yamasa New Pulsar V, will be re-allotted to Singapore-registered Evergreen Marine (Asia) for $71.1m.

Hsieh said the transaction amounts were determined after an assessment by Japanese classification society ClassNK.

The vessel names were not revealed. Gaining Enterprises  is the registered owner of 11 ships built between 1998 and 2000—Uni-Ardent, Uni-Aspire, Uni-Assent, Uni-Assure, Uni-Pacific, Uni-Patriot, Uni-Perfect, Uni-Phoenix, Uni-Popular, Uni-Premier and Uni-Prudent. Yamasa New Pulsar V is the registered owner of one 2007-built vessel, the 7,024 teu Ever Summit.

Hsieh said, “There will be no change in Evergreen’s fleet composition. Re-assigning the special purpose vehicles is to co-ordinate our operations, in view of market conditions, to strengthen our competitiveness, market share and efficiency.”