News / Yang Ming to invest in newbuilds and staff as new chairman gets to work

© Enrico Powell |

Yang Ming’s new chairman, Tsai Feng-ming, has said that the Taiwanese mainline operator’s fleet plans will start with replacing old ships.

Dr Tsai, formerly a professor at National Taiwan Ocean University, who took over from Cheng Cheng-mount in July, told local media that the proportion of Yang Ming-owned and chartered vessels must be adjusted.

According to Alphaliner, Yang Ming operates 94 ships, of 696,816 teu, comprising 57 owned ships (300,354 teu) and 37 chartered vessels (396,462 teu), which means that in terms of slots, 57% is chartered.

Dr Tsai said: “More than half our owned ships are aged over 20 years, on average. We’re evaluating newbuilding plans, particularly for energy-efficient vessels, to maintain our competitiveness.”

In May, Yang Ming’s former GM, Patrick Tu, said the liner operator was considering building 24,000 teu vessels as it could not keep relying on fellow THE Alliance members’ tonnage. It is the only top 10 operator without ships larger than 20,000 teu.

Dr Tsai added that Yang Ming would consider the purchase of the ships on long-term charter – indeed, since 2023, Yang Ming has bought 10, boosting its ratio of owned ships by 4%.

Dr Tsai noted that Yang Ming had dropped to 10th among liner operators, and needs to build more ships. He also said he would propose salary increments for staff, to give them “the best welfare”.

Remuneration at Yang Ming has been a sore point since the Covid boom, when staff at compatriot peer Evergreen received substantially higher bonuses.

Dr Tsai said: “I hope my colleagues and the board can have more common goals in the shortest possible time, and there will be more new developments.”