Taiwanese shipping companies are handing out bumper mid-year bonuses, despite a slump in global cargo as the industry continues to benefit from earlier COVID-19 pandemic gains.
Yang Ming Marine Transport Corp (陽明海運) is awarding workers up to 30 months of salary on their next payday after shareholders on Friday last week approved the NT$2.3 billion (US$74.82 million) bonus, the Chinese-lanugage Economic Daily News reported yesterday.
That is in addition to a year-end bonus of 12 months of salary paid at the beginning of this year, the newspaper said.
Photo: CNA
Company rules dictate the shipping firm must distribute 1 percent of its previous year’s profit to employees as compensation, Yang Ming said in an e-mail, although the amount each member of staff receives is at the company’s discretion.
Evergreen Marine Corp (長榮海運) is to give its 3,100 workers another NT$1.9 billion, equivalent to about 12 months of pay, after shareholders on Tuesday approved the bonus, the report said.
The latest payments come on top of bonuses of about 50 months of salary in January after the maritime giant reported record profit of NT$334.2 billion for last year.
Evergreen did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Shipping firms have enjoyed a windfall over the past two years on an industrywide surge in demand for consumer goods and freight rates during the COVID-19 pandemic.
However, that is waning, with economic uncertainty driving a slump in global shipping.
Evergreen’s net income is expected to plunge 94 percent this year to NT$18.6 billion, analysts’ estimates showed.
Yang Ming is forecast to see profit fall 99 percent to NT$2.2 billion, analysts’ estimates showed.
STIMULUS PLANS: An official said that China would increase funding from special treasury bonds and expand another program focused on key strategic sectors China is to sharply increase funding from ultra-long treasury bonds this year to spur business investment and consumer-boosting initiatives, a state planner official told a news conference yesterday, as Beijing cranks up fiscal stimulus to revitalize its faltering economy. Special treasury bonds would be used to fund large-scale equipment upgrades and consumer goods trade-ins, said Yuan Da (袁達), deputy secretary-general of the Chinese National Development and Reform Commission. “The size of ultra-long special government bond funds will be sharply increased this year to intensify and expand the implementation of the two new initiatives,” Yuan said. Under the program launched last year, consumers can
Citigroup Inc and Bank of America Corp said they are leaving a global climate-banking group, becoming the latest Wall Street lenders to exit the coalition in the past month. In a statement, Citigroup said while it remains committed to achieving net zero emissions, it is exiting the Net-Zero Banking Alliance (NZBA). Bank of America said separately on Tuesday that it is also leaving NZBA, adding that it would continue to work with clients on reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The banks’ departure from NZBA follows Goldman Sachs Group Inc and Wells Fargo & Co. The largest US financial institutions are under increasing pressure
FUTURE TECH: Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang would give the keynote speech at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show, which is also expected to highlight autonomous vehicles Gadgets, robots and vehicles imbued with artificial intelligence (AI) would once again vie for attention at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) this week, as vendors behind the scenes would seek ways to deal with tariffs threatened by US president-elect Donald Trump. The annual Consumer Electronics Show opens formally in Las Vegas tomorrow, but preceding days are packed with product announcements. AI would be a major theme of the show, along with autonomous vehicles ranging from tractors and boats to lawn mowers and golf club trollies. “Everybody is going to be talking about AI,” Creative Strategies Inc analyst Carolina Milanesi said. “From fridges to ovens
Twenty years after he was a young, struggling actor in Toronto, Thomas Lo (盧瑞麟) is now the one giving young Asian actors their big breaks. He just had to go to Hong Kong to do it. The Chinese Canadian has been the creative director of one of the territory’s biggest TV broadcasting companies for only a few years, but is already making original English-language content to reach viewers around the world. “It was a bit of a full-circle moment for me,” Lo said. “You see more Asians, but you’re still seeing the same Asians on screen, right? We’re looking for more opportunities
RSS