Evergreen Marine Corp (長榮海運) and Yang Ming Marine Transport Corp (陽明海運) this year granted substantially large year-end bonuses to employees given strong profits, despite a decline in shipping rates this quarter.
Evergreen Marine, the nation’s largest container shipping company, distributed year-end bonuses of as much as 52 months wages to some of its employees yesterday, higher than the 40 months it offered last year, the Chinese-language Liberty Times (sister newspaper of the Taipei Times), reported yesterday.
Most employees were rewarded with year-end bonuses ranging from 10 to 45 months of wages, while those demonstrating superior job performances received the equivalent of 52 months of salary, the report said.
Photo courtesy of Evergreen Marine Corp
Evergreen declined to confirm the report or answer questions about the bonuses. It only said that each employee was compensated based on their performance.
Evergreen reported a net profit of NT$304.35 billion (US$9.91 billion) during the first three quarters of the year, up 92 percent year-on-year, or earning per share of NT$68.88, corporate data showed.
Evergreen’s local rival, Yang Ming Marine, planned to reward its employees with up to 13 months of their monthly salary, the Liberty Times reported yesterday.
The shipper’s net profit surged 51 percent year-on-year to NT$165.85 billion in the first three quarters of the year.
The company’s earnings per share were NT$46.97, up from NT$32.42 a year earlier, corporate data showed.
The shipping companies said that the significant revenue growth was a result of rising freight rates amid labor shortages and congestion at ports around the world amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
Evergreen shares gained 1.88 percent to NT$163, while Yang Ming shares rose 1.08 percent to NT$65.5 in Taipei trading yesterday.
TARIFF TRADE-OFF: Machinery exports to China dropped after Beijing ended its tariff reductions in June, while potential new tariffs fueled ‘front-loaded’ orders to the US The nation’s machinery exports to the US amounted to US$7.19 billion last year, surpassing the US$6.86 billion to China to become the largest export destination for the local machinery industry, the Taiwan Association of Machinery Industry (TAMI, 台灣機械公會) said in a report on Jan. 10. It came as some manufacturers brought forward or “front-loaded” US-bound shipments as required by customers ahead of potential tariffs imposed by the new US administration, the association said. During his campaign, US president-elect Donald Trump threatened tariffs of as high as 60 percent on Chinese goods and 10 percent to 20 percent on imports from other countries.
Taiwanese manufacturers have a chance to play a key role in the humanoid robot supply chain, Tongtai Machine and Tool Co (東台精機) chairman Yen Jui-hsiung (嚴瑞雄) said yesterday. That is because Taiwanese companies are capable of making key parts needed for humanoid robots to move, such as harmonic drives and planetary gearboxes, Yen said. This ability to produce these key elements could help Taiwanese manufacturers “become part of the US supply chain,” he added. Yen made the remarks a day after Nvidia Corp cofounder and chief executive officer Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) said his company and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) are jointly
United Microelectronics Corp (UMC, 聯電) expects its addressable market to grow by a low single-digit percentage this year, lower than the overall foundry industry’s 15 percent expansion and the global semiconductor industry’s 10 percent growth, the contract chipmaker said yesterday after reporting the worst profit in four-and-a-half years in the fourth quarter of last year. Growth would be fueled by demand for artificial intelligence (AI) servers, a moderate recovery in consumer electronics and an increase in semiconductor content, UMC said. “UMC’s goal is to outgrow our addressable market while maintaining our structural profitability,” UMC copresident Jason Wang (王石) told an online earnings
MARKET SHIFTS: Exports to the US soared more than 120 percent to almost one quarter, while ASEAN has steadily increased to 18.5 percent on rising tech sales The proportion of Taiwan’s exports directed to China, including Hong Kong, declined by more than 12 percentage points last year compared with its peak in 2020, the Ministry of Finance said on Thursday last week. The decrease reflects the ongoing restructuring of global supply chains, driven by escalating trade tensions between Beijing and Washington. Data compiled by the ministry showed China and Hong Kong accounted for 31.7 percent of Taiwan’s total outbound sales last year, a drop of 12.2 percentage points from a high of 43.9 percent in 2020. In addition to increasing trade conflicts between China and the US, the ministry said