Yang Ming Marine Transport Corp (陽明海運) yesterday reported net profit of NT$50.84 billion (US$1.83 billion) for last quarter — a company record — as high freight rates boosted revenue and gross margin.
In the third quarter, the container shipper posted revenue of NT$95.45 billion, up 145 percent from a year earlier, while gross profit totaled NT$64.77 billion, 10 times higher than a year earlier.
Yang Ming’s gross margin rose to 67.85 percent, up from 60.17 percent in the second quarter and compared with 14.64 percent a year earlier, although it was still lower than Evergreen Marine Corp’s (長榮海運) 69 percent, the companies’ data showed.
For the first three quarters, Yang Ming reported cumulative net profit of NT$109.88 billion and earnings per share (EPS) of NT$32.73, higher than Evergreen’s EPS of NT$30.27 and Wan Hai Lines Ltd’s (萬海航運) NT$28.37 over the same period, the companies’ data showed.
Yang Ming expects to reduce its debt-to-asset ratio, which totaled about 58 percent at the end of June, to below 50 percent by the end of this year, chairmen Cheng Chen-mount (鄭貞茂) told an event in Taipei on Wednesday.
Last year, routes to the US were the most profitable, but routes to Europe have been the most profitable this year due to congestion at US ports, Cheng said.
Given its record profits this year, the company plans to distribute dividends next year, but the amount has not yet been determined, he added.
Cheng said he remains upbeat about the outlook for the shipping business over the next two years, adding that the company would take delivery of new vessels over the next three years.
In related news, freight forwarder T3EX Global Holdings Corp (台驊國際投資控股) yesterday said that most shippers have forecast that sea cargo would increase in the first half of next year, despite risks such as port congestion and contract negotiations between workers’ unions and ports.
However, demand would still outgrow supply, likely keeping shipping rates elevated, T3EX said.
Yang Ming’s share price yesterday plunged 7.83 percent to NT$106 in Taipei trading, Taiwan Stock Exchange data showed.
PERSISTENT RUMORS: Nvidia’s CEO said the firm is not in talks to sell AI chips to China, but he would welcome a change in US policy barring the activity Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) said his company is not in discussions to sell its Blackwell artificial intelligence (AI) chips to Chinese firms, waving off speculation it is trying to engineer a return to the world’s largest semiconductor market. Huang, who arrived in Taiwan yesterday ahead of meetings with longtime partner Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), took the opportunity to clarify recent comments about the US-China AI race. The Nvidia head caused a stir in an interview this week with the Financial Times, in which he was quoted as saying “China will win” the AI race. Huang yesterday said
Japanese technology giant Softbank Group Corp said Tuesday it has sold its stake in Nvidia Corp, raising US$5.8 billion to pour into other investments. It also reported its profit nearly tripled in the first half of this fiscal year from a year earlier. Tokyo-based Softbank said it sold the stake in Silicon Vally-based Nvidia last month, a move that reflects its shift in focus to OpenAI, owner of the artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot ChatGPT. Softbank reported its profit in the April-to-September period soared to about 2.5 trillion yen (about US$13 billion). Its sales for the six month period rose 7.7 percent year-on-year
Nissan Motor Co has agreed to sell its global headquarters in Yokohama for ￥97 billion (US$630 million) to a group sponsored by Taiwanese autoparts maker Minth Group (敏實集團), as the struggling automaker seeks to shore up its financial position. The acquisition is led by a special purchase company managed by KJR Management Ltd, a Japanese real-estate unit of private equity giant KKR & Co, people familiar with the matter said. KJR said it would act as asset manager together with Mizuho Real Estate Management Co. Nissan is undergoing a broad cost-cutting campaign by eliminating jobs and shuttering plants as it grapples
MORE WEIGHT: The national weighting was raised in one index while holding steady in two others, while several companies rose or fell in prominence MSCI Inc, a global index provider, has raised Taiwan’s weighting in one of its major indices and left the country’s weighting unchanged in two other indices after a regular index review. In a statement released on Thursday, MSCI said it has upgraded Taiwan’s weighting in the MSCI All-Country World Index by 0.02 percentage points to 2.25 percent, while maintaining the weighting in the MSCI Emerging Markets Index, the most closely watched by foreign institutional investors, at 20.46 percent. Additionally, the index provider has left Taiwan’s weighting in the MSCI All-Country Asia ex-Japan Index unchanged at 23.15 percent. The latest index adjustments are to
RSS