News / Higher profit margins for Asian carriers that avoided costly charter market

Photo: Wan Hai Lines

Expanding their owned fleets is paying off for Asian mainstream shipping lines, giving them better profit margins than their European peers.

Following the release of publicly listed shipping lines’ results for the first nine months of 2025, Asian liner operators outperformed their European rivals, thanks to having fewer chartered ships.

Taiwan’s Wan Hai, which owns all but one of the 116 ships in its fleet, had an EBIT (earnings before interest and taxation) margin of 25%, the best among the listed liners.

In second place was compatriot Evergreen, which owns 69% of its fleet, and had an EBIT margin of 23%m while China’s Cosco, which owns 76% of its vessels, had an EBIT margin of just under 23%.

French line CMA CGM was the only European carrier with an EBIT margin among the five largest. It owns 70% of its fleet and had an EBIT of 15%.

In the next spot was South Korea’s flagship carrier, HMM, which owns 85% of its fleet and booked EBIT of 12%; Taiwan’s Yang Ming, which owns 54%, was next, with an EBIT of 10%; while ONE, Maersk and Hapag-Lloyd had the lowest EBIT among the top 10 carriers, with respective margins of 6.3%, 6.2% and 4%.

ONE owns 59% of its fleet. Maersk and Hapag-Lloyd, partners in Gemini Cooperation, respectively own 64% and 60% of their fleets.

Linerlytica commented: “The high cost of maintaining the superior schedule reliability of the Gemini network and the inability to secure any freight rate premium have continued to drag down the two carriers’ operating performance.”

After Gemini began operations in February, both Maersk and Hapag-Lloyd actively chartered vessels amid rising rates throughout the year as they found themselves with inadequate capacity.

In contrast, Wan Hai and Evergreen have the lowest ratio of chartered vessels in their fleet, both lines having gone into the newbuilding and second-hand vessel markets to hedge against the high charter costs.