EVA Airways Corp (
EVA Airways is "confident" of reaching its NT$2.8 billion (US$81 million) profit target this year, more than double last year's NT$1.2 billion, spokesman Nieh Kuo-wei (
Asian stocks slumped after oil prices extended a 21-year high, threatening to slow global economic growth. New York crude oil futures extended last week's record after Qatar-based al-Jazeera television station said Izzeddine Salim, head of the Iraqi Governing Council, was killed by a bomb in Baghdad. Crude for June delivery climbed as high as US$41.75 in after-hours trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
"For the moment, we see no signs that oil price increases will slow global economic growth, especially because both the shipping and air cargo industry will enter the annual peak season from June to September," Nieh said.
The cargo industry has leeway to levy a fuel surcharge to absorb oil price increases and passenger airfares can be raised to lessen the impact of higher oil costs for carriers, Nieh said.
The stock market's tumble today wasn't "reasonable" and the falling share prices for Taiwanese shippers are "hard to imagine," he said.
Shares of EVA Airways have fallen 26 percent in the past three months, compared with a 16 percent decline by the TAIEX. Evergreen Marine Corp (
"Investors simply had overreacted to oil price increases," he said. Oil prices "are in an uptrend in the long run because of widening shortage of crude oil, but recent price gains should be enough in the near term."
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