Evergreen Marine Corp (長榮海運), Asia’s and the nation’s biggest container line, posted a third straight quarterly loss as slumping world trade hammered shipping rates.
The NT$1.98 billion (US$60 million) net loss in the three months ending in June compared with a profit of NT$829 million a year earlier.
The number was derived from first-half results announced by the Taipei-based company yesterday. The figure beat the median estimate for a NT$3.39 billion loss in a survey of five analysts.
Evergreen, along with several regional containers, have slumped to losses this year as US and European consumers cut spending on Asian-made goods because of job concerns.
At the same time, the global container fleet will likely expand 9.8 percent this year, according to data provider AXS-Alphaliner, as shipyards deliver vessels ordered during a trade boom that ended last year.
“There’s just too many new ships coming,” said Stone Lin (林溢錤), a Taipei-based analyst at Yuanta Securities Co (元大證券), which has a “sell” rating on Evergreen. “Overcapacity will continue to be a problem next year.”
Evergreen’s second quarter sales plunged 28 percent to NT$4.09 billion, monthly filings to the Taiwan Stock Exchange showed. Revenue from affiliates and subsidiaries is counted separately. The group operates about 170 ships with a combined capacity of 615,000 standard 20-foot boxes.
The shipping line fell 0.5 percent to close at NT$19.9 in Taiwan Stock Exchange trading yesterday, before the announcement. The stock has climbed 29 percent this year, compared with the 49 percent gain in the benchmark TAIEX stock index.
In the first half of the year, the company posted NT$4.71 billion in net losses, or a loss of NT$1.54 per share, exchange filings showed.
The figures represented a sharp contraction from the same period last year when the world’s fourthbiggest container line reported a net profit of NT$1.2 billion with earnings per share standing at NT$0.39, the financial statement said.
The company expected sales to gradually pick up in the second half of this year.
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