HMM's Ultra-Large Ship Ratio Reaches 53%, Ranking First Worldwide
In the fourth quarter of last year, six out of the top 10 global shipping companies experienced negative growth due to a downturn in the shipping market. Among them, HMM, ranked 8th, recorded a profit alongside Taiwan's Evergreen by securing ultra-large vessels.
According to the shipping industry on the 24th, among the world's top 10 shipping companies, Denmark's Maersk (2nd), France's CMA-CGM (3rd), Germany's Hapag-Lloyd (5th), Japan's ONE (6th), Taiwan's Yang Ming (9th), and Israel's Zim Line (10th) all posted operating losses in the fourth quarter of last year. Excluding Switzerland's MSC (1st), which does not disclose its performance, and China's COSCO (4th), which has yet to announce its results, six out of the eight shipping companies reported negative growth.
Maersk recorded a loss of $92 million, equivalent to 13% of its revenue, in the fourth quarter of last year. Having posted losses in the previous quarter as well, it experienced consecutive negative growth. Hapag-Lloyd and ONE also recorded losses of $245 million and $248 million respectively in the fourth quarter of last year.
The market assessment is that shipping companies' earnings shrank sharply due to the end of the COVID-19 boom and a rapid deterioration in shipping conditions caused by the economic recession. In fact, the Shanghai Containerized Freight Index (SCFI), which reflects freight rates on maritime shipping routes, hovered around 1000 points in the fourth quarter of last year, dropping to about a quarter of the previous year's level.
However, HMM, South Korea's largest container shipping company and the world's 8th largest shipping company, performed well by recording profits alongside Taiwan's Evergreen, ranked 7th. Since turning a profit in the second quarter of 2020, HMM has maintained profits for 15 consecutive quarters through the fourth quarter of last year. According to Sea-Intelligence, a Danish shipping research firm, HMM's operating profit per TEU (1 TEU equals one 20-foot container) last year was $119, higher than Maersk's $94.
Since April 2020, HMM has sequentially introduced 20 ultra-large vessels, including twelve 24,000 TEU-class ships and eight 16,000 TEU-class ships. HMM's proportion of ultra-large vessels over 15,000 TEU is 53%, the highest in the world. This exceeds the average of 23% among the top 20 shipping companies. With all twelve 13,000 TEU-class vessels ordered in 2022 scheduled for delivery this year, the proportion of ultra-large vessels is expected to increase further.
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