Evergreen Marine Corp (長榮海運), the largest container shipping company in Taiwan, reportedly distributed year-end bonuses of as much as 40 months wages to some of its employees yesterday.
Some Evergreen employees have received about NT$2 million (US$72,228) in individual bonuses, local media reports said.
A couple who are entry-level supervisors at Evergreen told the Chinese-language China Times that they received a combined NT$5 million year-end bonus.
Photo: CNA
The two told the newspaper that they earn a base salary of NT$60,000 and that they have been working at the company for more than 10 years.
The shipping giant did not confirm the amount of individual bonuses, but said that each employee was compensated based on performance.
Despite the high-profile grounding of one of its ships in the Suez Canal in March, Evergreen reported net profit of NT$158.27 billion for the first three quarters of this year, an annual increase of 1,347.32 percent, with earnings per share of NT$30.27.
Evergreen’s next-largest peer, Yang Ming Marine Transport Corp (陽明海運), rewarded its employees with up to eight months of salary as year-end bonuses, several media outlets reported yesterday, without disclosing how the information was obtained.
The shipper reported net profit of NT$109.88 billion for the first three quarters, up 5,839 percent from a year earlier. The company’s earnings per share reached NT$32.73, the highest among local peers.
The shipping companies said that the significant revenue growth is a result of rising freight rates amid labor shortages and congestion at ports around the world amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
Shares of Evergreen fell 1.04 percent to NT$142.5, while Yang Ming shares dropped 2.81 percent to NT$121 in Taipei trading yesterday.
Over the whole year, the companies’ stocks increased 253.81 percent and 325.64 percent respectively, Taiwan Stock Exchange data showed.
Additional reporting by Chen Cheng-hui
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