According to MNavigation, December earnings reports from Taiwan's three largest shipping companies - Evergreen Shipping, Yang Ming Shipping and Wanhai Shipping - showed a year-on-year growth rate of over 60%, driven mainly by peak shipping ahead of the Chinese New Year and continued support for freight rates.
In December 2024, Evergreen Shipping achieved revenue of NT$38.14 billion (about US$1.16 billion), a year-on-year increase of 61.4%; For the full year of 2024, revenue reached NT$463.51 billion (approximately US$14.06 billion), a year-on-year increase of 67.5%.
In December 2024, Yang Ming Shipping's revenue was NT$17.25 billion (about US$520 million), a year-on-year increase of 62.0%; Full-year revenue was NT$222.95 billion (US$6.76 billion), up 58.4% year-on-year.
In December, Wanhai Shipping achieved revenue of NT$14.39 billion (about US$440 million), a year-on-year increase of 72.2%; The annual revenue was NT$161.87 billion (about US$4.91 billion), a year-on-year increase of 61.5%.
Despite the strong revenue growth of the three Taiwanese shipping giants in 2024, the global shipping market still faces many challenges, especially the ongoing tensions in the Middle East, the economic downturn in Europe, and structural issues in the global supply chain, which have become key factors affecting the future direction of the market.
The first is the geopolitical crisis in the Middle East, especially in the Red Sea region, which continues to cause volatility in the global shipping market. Taiwan's three major shipping companies all pointed out that although the market is currently in an uncertain stage, the "Red Sea crisis" does provide a certain amount of room for absorption of excess capacity, supporting a higher freight rate level.
According to Alphaliner's data, Taiwan's three major shipping companies have all seen lower capacity growth than the industry average in the past year, with Evergreen Shipping's capacity up 6.9% year-on-year, Yang Ming Shipping's 0.4% decrease, and Wan Hai Shipping's growth of 9.3%. These data show that despite the recovery in global shipping demand, Taiwan's three major shipping companies are relatively cautious in capacity expansion due to larger ships, port congestion and instability in the global supply chain.