Yang Ming blames economic uncertainty for $4M Q2 loss

Yang Ming Marine Transport Corp. on Friday reported a second-quarter after-tax net loss of $4.27 million.

The Taiwanese ocean carrier’s first quarter was better than the second, propelling it to an after-tax net profit for the first six months of 2023 of $107 million. Still, that’s a $3.9 billion nosedive from the first half of 2022.  

Consolidated revenues were $1.15 billion for Q2 and $2.36 billion for the first half of the year. 

“The maritime industry in the first half of the year was impacted by inflation and uncertainty in the global economy,” Yang Ming said in its four-paragraph news release, which did not include year-over-year comparisons or charts. “Additionally, freight rates declined compared to the same period last year, leading to a decrease in revenue compared to the corresponding period last year.”

FreightWaves reported last year that Yang Ming had second-quarter consolidated revenue of $3.8 billion. In 2022, Yang Ming had a net profit of $1.9 billion in Q2 and $4.04 billion in the first six months of the year. 

Yang Ming on Friday cited an Alphaliner forecast that said overall supply is expected to grow by 8.5% this year while demand is predicted to grow by only 1.4%.