Yang Ming posts 2020 net profit of $404.9 million

Yang Ming Marine Transport Corporation (Yang Ming) held its 356th Board Meeting on March 25th, 2021 to approve its 2020 annual financial report. The consolidated revenues increased 1.4% to NTD 151.28 billion (USD 5.11 billion) in 2020. Business volumes were 5.07 million TEUs. Yang Ming’s profit after-tax reached NTD 11.98 billion (USD 0.4 billion) with full-year EPS of NTD 4.51.

After the initial downturn in the upper half of 2020, the container shipping market saw a boost in demand since mid-August. The rebound was supported by the change in consumer behavior during the Covid-19 lockdown, including the accelerated adoption of E-commerce, and the increased needs for hygiene products, housewares and work-from-home essentials. Due to sudden inventory build-up, the surge in demand resulted in a global shortage of empty containers and capacity constraints, which led to the increase in freight rates on East-West and intra-Asia trade routes. The upward trend continued in the last quarter of 2020.

To meet the needs of customers, Yang Ming implemented necessary measures to secure adequate capacity and expedite the turnaround time for empty containers. Meanwhile, the company had taken delivery of a total of six 2,800 TEU self-owned new vessels and three 11,000 TEU chartered-in vessels in 2020. These additions were put into services to further facilitate demand growth and bring greater operational efficiency.

Driven by higher freight rates and relatively low bunker fuel prices, despite a 6.63 % year-on-year decline in business volume, Yang Ming gained 1.4% of revenues last year, indicating a robust growth in profit after-tax in 2020. With the strong business performance, Yang Ming has strengthened its financial status and successfully eliminated accumulated deficit by the end of 2020. To further enhance its finance, Yang Ming intends to launch domestic cash capital increase with issuance of no more than 300,000,000 new common shares, and conduct public underwriting by the way of book building. With the greatly strengthened financial structure, Yang Ming will be in a strong and resilient position to achieve sustainable development.

Yang Ming Marine Transport Corporation (Yang Ming) established on December 28, 1972, is one of the leading shipping companies in the world providing global and sophisticated marine transportation services. As of January of 2021, Yang Ming operates a fleet of 90 vessels with a 6.985-million-D.W.T / operating capacity 618 000 TEUS.