Evergreen Marine Reports First Profit in a Year as Sales Rise

Evergreen Marine Corp., operator of Asia’s No. 2 container-shipping line, had its first quarterly profit in a year as sales increased on higher freight rates.

Net income rose to NT$858 million ($29 million) in the three months through June from NT$81 million a year earlier, based on calculations using six-month results announced by the Taipei-based company today. The average of seven analyst estimates compiled by Bloomberg was for a second-quarter profit of NT$804 million.

Evergreen Marine joins APL Ltd. in reporting improved earnings after industry-wide losses last year prompted carriers to boost cooperation and raise rates. The company’s second- quarter consolidated sales jumped 32 percent from a year earlier, based on monthly filings to the Taiwan stock exchange.

Evergreen fell 1.8 percent to close at NT$16 in Taipei trading today, before the announcement. The stock has risen 4.6 percent this year, matching the gain in the benchmark Taiex stock index.

Before today, the company had posted three straight quarterly losses.

The first-half net loss was NT$2.4 billion, compared with a profit of NT$1.39 billion a year earlier, the company said in a statement to the Taiwan stock exchange today.

Evergreen Line operates 180 vessels with a combined capacity of 694,415 containers, according to Alphaliner data. China Cosco Holdings Co.’s container-shipping unit is Asia’s biggest with a capacity for 716,331 containers.

Neptune Orient Lines Ltd. said Aug. 8 that APL, its container-shipping arm, had its first quarterly profit since 2010 because of higher freight rates and cost-savings.