If you want to ask which region has the highest average ranking of shipping companies, there is an island in China that has gathered three giants. Among the top ten shipping companies in the world, Taiwan has three seats, namely Evergreen Shipping (7th), Yang Ming Shipping ( No. 9) and Wan Hai Shipping (No. 10). Not to mention the high density, compared with Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC), which ranks first today, these three companies can be called "net celebrities". The Changci owned by Evergreen Shipping has blocked the Suez Canal for six days, and has almost become a more famous ship than the Titanic ; In the hot container shipping market, a ship collision accident occurred shortly after the new ship leaves the factory; Yangming Shipping also has constant news. In the middle of 2021, Zheng Zhenmao, chairman of the board, announced in a high-profile way that he will take the lead in raising salaries in the industry, and let us see the charter to Maersk When it came to the shipping company's "alternative" way of making money, but at the end of the year, the old captain complained that the company had no vision but spread further on the Internet.
Another emoji package has been widely circulated recently, disturbing the online reviews of the Taiwanese shipping company Sanxiong. Evergreen issued a year-end bonus equivalent to 40 months’ salary, which made the "Choose a spouse and find Evergreen Shipping" go out of the circle . In addition, Zhang Guohua, chairman of of Evergreen Group, announced that there will be a bonus in the middle of this year, but Yang Ming and Wanhai have not announced the specific number of year-end bonuses. a problem. Yangming Shipping successively contracted huge advertisements at the New Year's Eve parties of Taipei 101 Building and Kaohsiung , which caused a lot of criticism: "If you have money to buy advertisements, you don't have money to post year-end." Wan Hai Shipping revealed that this year's shareholders By amending the articles of association, employee remuneration and distribution of dividends will shrink. As for last year’s year-end bonus, Evergreen’s salary was 10 months last year; Wan Hai’s was about 2 to 8 months last year; Yangming’s year-end bonus was fixed at 1 month, and the market estimated that the bonus bonus was more than 7 months. Evergreen won twice in the field of bonus distribution.
Of course, whether or not the year-end bonus will be issued, or how much it will be, is actually just a small goal for the shipping companies in the past two years. After all, in the profit boom of the shipping companies, the three companies have not lost much money. The chairman of Yang Ming expects the profit of Taiwan Sanxiong to be about 115 billion yuan this year, exceeding the total profit of Taiwan's banking industry. The stock prices of and of the three companies are also soaring on a rocket. According to Taiwanese media estimates, the three companies’ after-tax net profits in 2021 and 2022 can not only distribute 40% to 60% of cash dividends, but also use the remaining large sums of money. In the purchase of ships and other operational matters. Take Yang Ming Shipping, which has been losing money for ten consecutive years, as an example. Not only can it close the loss, but it also has a large cash flow . It is really curious where the three shipping companies have spent these huge sums of money and how they plan to spend them.
Evergreen Shipping, which has made a lot of limelight this year, is very clear about its every move. The salary adjustment and year-end bonus of Pratt & Whitney employees are just "trifles", and Evergreen has piled up a lot of banknotes into ships and containers. Among the top ten shipping companies, Evergreen not only owns the world's largest container ship "Changfan", but also has the most new shipbuilding orders. After rounds of new ships are launched, there are still 67 ships under construction. According to Alphaliner estimates, the ratio of Evergreen's orders to the existing fleet is about 41.1%. The capacity of Evergreen Shipping itself is in the third echelon after Mediterranean Sea and Maersk, CMA CGM and COSCO Shipping, which is more than the sum of Yangming and Wanhai.
In March 2021, Evergreen ordered 20 ships of 15,000 TEU from Samsung Heavy Industries, , two ships of 24,000 TEU from Hudong Zhonghua in June, and four ships of 24,000 TEU from Jiangnan Shipyard . It was completed this year. In September, it ordered 24 ships from Huangpu Wenchong. On November 5, it ordered two large ships of 24,000 TEU from Jiangnan Shipyard. After all orders are completed, it is no problem to surpass ONE to rank 6th
Wanhai Shipping Although he lost the year-end award for a while, the pace of buying and building ships has not slowed down. The proportion of Wanhai's shipbuilding orders to the existing fleet is 59.9%, ranking first among the top ten shipping companies. In order to take advantage of the fire in the container marketThe hot east wind flies farther, and Wan Hai is also relentless in chartering and buying second-hand ships. In 2020, when freight rates began to rise, Wan Hai allocated 360 million US dollars to buy second-hand ships, and purchased a total of 12 ships. In November 2021, Wan Hai invested another US$200 million into the ship buying market, and then purchased three ships with US$118 million.
On the other hand, under the current situation of port congestion in the west of the United States, due to the backlog of many ships in the port, Wan Hai decisively withdrew some of its shipping capacity to the interior of Asia, and deployed it to the east coast of the United States. At the same time, it signed an agreement with Long Beach Port SSA Marine, And lease the Yokohama Port Honmuku (Honmuku) D4 Terminal for 10 years at a total rent of 500 million US dollars, and plan to adopt fully automatic operations at the three terminals of the Fifth Container Center of Kaohsiung Port. With a multi-pronged approach, Wan Hai not only earned hot money, but also stabilized his position in Asia, and steadily moved towards becoming a global shipping company.
Compared to the "shipbuilding king" Evergreen and the "showmanship" Wan Hai, Yangming Shipping in the middle seems to be moving slowly. Among the world's top ten shipping companies, Yang Ming's shipbuilding orders account for 9% of the existing fleet, only higher than Maersk, which is transforming into a full-service logistics company. Even the internal employees of the 10,000-TEU container ship company complained bitterly that it would be better to sell shares and to "officials" instead of missing the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
In fact, from the perspective of the shareholding structure, about one-third of Yang Ming’s shares are distributed in the hands of the government, and most of the chairman of the board is appointed by the government. The current chairman Zheng Zhenmao is the first non-marine origin since Yang Ming’s listing Chairman, at the beginning of taking office, the first task was to reform Yang Ming's financial structure, and be cautious in spending money. As the company's debt ratio dropped to 45.33%, which became the lowest among Taiwan's three heroes, Yang Ming finally let out the news that the shipbuilding plan will be put on the agenda in 2022, and the salary of all employees will be raised in response to the question of "spending money indiscriminately". .
After reviewing the various operations of the three major shipping companies in Taiwan, the port community believes that the year-end bonus is a small amount of money for the shipping companies that have made a lot of money in the past two years, but how much and how it is issued reflects different companies. operating mode. Wan Hai has grasped the current upsurge in container shipping, Evergreen is full of confidence in the industry's prosperity, and Yangming is extremely cautious. However, apart from hard assets such as ships and terminals, the foundation of a shipping company is also an indispensable soft power. No matter how much is invested in hard assets, the veteran employees who accompany the company through the trough are worth every penny invested.
