Evergreen and Yang Ming hit by Q3 loss, Wan Hai maintains profit

Evergreen, the biggest shipping line by fleet capacity among the three, posted a third quarter loss of TWD2.41bn ($74.05m) as against a profit of TWD1.86bn in the same period of 2014.

Revenue for the three months ended 30 September 2015 was recorded at TWD33.04bn, down 12.1% from TWD37.6bn in the previous corresponding period.

Yang Ming also posted a disappointing third quarter results with a larger deficit of TWD4.23bn, a reversal from the gain of TWD1.4bn in the year-ago period.

Revenue for Yang Ming went down 14.5% year-on-year to TWD31.9bn.

Freight rates have been battered by the prolonged sluggish global container shipping market, as the key Asia-Europe rates had been volatile but largely bearish between July to September, according to the Shanghai Containerised Freight Index.

While the Asia-Europe rates had reached a high of 1,109 points on 31 July, they started on a downward trend to a three-month low of 231 points on 23 October before a jump to 988 points in end October.

Meanwhile, Wan Hai, the smaller of the three carriers and largely an intra-Asia player, remained profitable with a gain of TWD1.06bn in the July-September 2015 period, down from the profit of TWD1.81bn in the year-ago period.

Revenue, however, dipped by 13.3% year-on-year to TWD15.27bn.