Evergreen Issues Hefty Bonuses After a Profitable 2022

Last week, the Taiwanese ocean carrier Evergreen Marine Corp (EMC) released its 2022 financial results, setting aside huge bonuses to compensate its workers for good performance. According to the financial report, Evergreen’s consolidated revenue for 2022 reached $20.5 billion, an increase of 28% compared to the previous year.

The after tax profit totaled $10.9 billion, representing a 39 percent rise. What carried the day though was the announcement that Evergreen had set aside $62.2 million as a reward to its over 3,100 employees. This sum is equivalent to 10 to 11 months of salary.

Last December, Evergreen Marine also awarded the employees massive end of year bonuses worth 50 months’ pay. Thus, the combined bonuses for 2022 is estimated to reach five years’ pay. Evergreen claims that it distributes 0.5 percent of its earnings as employee compensations.

However, the company stated that the bonus payment would be distributed according to individual performance of the employees. According to some local media reports, the average monthly pay for an Evergreen’s employee is around $1,900.

In 2021, Evergreen also issued another hefty bonus, with some employees taking home over $72,400 - equivalent to 40 months’ pay. This happened against a backdrop of the start of container shipping’s boom period.

Going by the financial reports so far released by other carriers, 2022 appears to be the peak of the record profits recorded during the COVID-19 pandemic, with the container shipping market now already normalized.

This has affected Evergreen Marine as well. Evergreen reported a consolidated revenue for the first two months of 2023 at $1.46 billion, marking a 56 percent year-on-year decline. The decrease in revenue is attributable to reduction in cargo volume and the downward spiral of the freight rates.

“The shipping industry might face a difficult off-season in the first quarter of 2023 but improvements could be recorded in the second quarter, with a more robust market recovery potentially materializing in the second half of the year,” commented Evergreen Marine President Hsieh Huey-Chuan.

In addition, Hsieh noted that the key to market recovery depends on the timely resolution of the Russia-Ukraine war.