《TAIPEI TIMES》 Shipping firms hand out mega-bonuses again

/ Bloomberg

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.

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That is in addition to a year-end bonus of 12 months of salary paid at the beginning of this year, the newspaper said.

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.

新聞來源：TAIPEI TIMES