Yang Ming Marine Transport Corporation (Yang Ming) held its 352nd Board Meeting on November 12th, 2020 to approve its 2020 Q3 financial report, the company said in its release.
Its consolidated revenues for the third quarter totaled NTD 38.86 billion (USD 1.3 billion), up 2.83% from the same period of last year. Business volumes were down by 10.99% year-over-year to 1.28 million TEUs. Yang Ming’s profit after-tax for the third quarter reached NTD 2.74 billion (USD 91.69 million). The decline in volume was mainly due to the market uncertainty caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. The company had to timely adapt capacity on East-West trades in response to the market change. However, since mid-August the lockdown restrictions have been gradually lifted following signs that the virus spread might be slowing. In light of this, the inventory build-ups across the supply chains in U.S. and Europe have returned. But, the lockdown measures already have profoundly impacted on people’s way of life and consumer behavior, which accelerates the shift to e-Commerce, further increases the needs for hygiene products and home improvement materials, including housewares, home office accessories, exercise equipment, and consequently leads to a rebound in container shipping demand and boosts freight rates.
For the first three quarters of 2020, Yang Ming’s consolidated revenues totaled NTD 105.25 billion (USD 3.53 billion). Year-to-date business volumes were 3.66 million TEUs. The after-tax profit for the first three quarters improved by 155.68% year-on-year to NTD 1.85 billion (USD 62.01 million). With the strong improvement in the third quarter, Yang Ming successfully achieved a return to profitability in 2020.
In the last quarter of 2020, this positive trend tends to continue. Yang Ming has prepared itself to offer the most suitable capacity to meet the needs of respective tradelanes. Looking into 2021, analyst firm Alphaliner projected the annual capacity growth at 3.0% and global throughput growth at 3.3%, suggesting a positive sign for the next year. In spite of this, the outlook of container shipping still remains clouded in uncertainties over the possible comeback of COVID-19 pandemic and U.S.-China trade conflicts. To navigate the challenge, Yang Ming will continue to enhance its business strategies and service quality. Furthermore, the company will set financial stability as its priority goal, in turn, to ensure steady profitability and sustainable customer service in the future.