Evergreen Marine: Revenues up, profit down sharply

Evergreen Marine (TSE:2603) reported third-quarter profit from continuing operations of 87.4 million new Taiwan dollars ($2.65 million US), a sharp drop from the 771.2 million NTD profit recorded in the same period last year, according to a filing with the Taiwan Stock Exchange’s Market Observation Post System.

However, Evergreen said total operating revenue was 11% higher, 49.86 billion NTD in the third quarter of this year compared to 44.91 NTD billion in the third quarter of 2018.

Evergreen had said in June that it thought there would be stable growth in Southeast Asian freight volumes this year, according to a report in the Taipei Times.

Evergreen is a member of the Ocean Alliance, a space-sharing agreement with CMA CGM/APL, COSCO and OOCL. Alphaliner ranks it as the seventh-largest container carrier, with 112 owned and 92 chartered ships with a total of about 1.3 million TEUs of capacity.

Evergreen has announced plans to aggressively expand its fleet in the next few years.

In a July 26, 2019, investor presentation, Evergreen said it had 63 ships on order, with capacities ranging in size from 1,800 to 20,000 TEUs and deliveries scheduled through 2022. After those ships were delivered, it said its capacity would reach 1.66 million TEUs.

But subsequently, in August, Evergreen said it would add even more ships — building five or six ships with 23,000-TEU capacity each and chartering four or five similar-size ships.