Yang Ming Posts Loss Despite Growing Revenues

Driven by market challenges in container shipping, Taiwanese shipping company Yang Ming Marine Transport Corporation closed the first half of this year with a net loss.

The company suffered a net loss of TWD 1.95 billion (USD 62.94 million), compared to a net loss of TWD 5.76 billion seen in the corresponding period last year.

Net loss for the second quarter of 2019 stood at TWD 1.27 billion, against a net loss of TWD 3.81 billion posted in Q2 2018.

On the other hand, Yang Ming’s consolidated revenues rose by 16.77% year on year to TWD 75.48 billion in H1 2019 and by 20.24% to TWD 40.4 billion in Q2 2019.

What is more, the company’s container volumes increased by 5% year on year to 2.64 million TEUs in the first half of this year and also by 5% to 1.35 million TEUs in the second quarter.

As explained, the results were affected by the current market oversupply and the weaker-than-expected market demand due to the ongoing China-US trade tensions.

In addition, the slight rise in bunker fuel prices affected Yang Ming’s operating costs.

Furthermore, the exercise of the new IFRS 16 accounting standard had a negatively impact on Yang Ming’s half-year profitability by around TWD 0.6 billion (USD 19.37 million). Consequently, the company’s operating performance was insufficient to yield profits in the first half of 2019, Yang Ming noted.

Nevertheless, Yang Ming said has reduced its financial losses significantly by 66.22% as compared to the previous year, largely due to the result of its strategies implementation and cost control.

The company has begun since the last year the deployment of its new eco-type containerships while returning some of its higher cost chartered vessels.

Established in 1972, Yang Ming currently operates a fleet of 101 vessels with an operating capacity of 7.74 million dwt or 673,000 TEUs.

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