Wednesday, November 11, 2026
The news that moves freight
Companies & Markets Nov 11, 2026 · 6 min read

Yang Ming Q3 profit and Taiwan carriers’ October revenue

Taiwan’s box lines are printing peak numbers. Forwarders should price for what comes after

Yang Ming made TWD (Taiwan dollars) 18.57bn (584.75m US dollars) in after-tax profit in the third quarter of 2026. Its board approved the results on 10 November. Q3 revenue was TWD 64.15bn (2.02bn US dollars), and EPS (earnings per share) was TWD 5.32. For the first nine months, revenue was TWD 148.73bn (4.68bn US dollars) and profit TWD 25.74bn (810.56m US dollars).

On the same day, Taiwan’s three big container lines filed their October revenue. All three were up sharply on a year earlier: Evergreen 96%, Yang Ming 82% and Wan Hai 124%.

Our view is simple. This is what a peak looks like. Carriers will take these numbers into 2027 contract talks and try to set next year’s rates off them. The supply figures point the other way. Forwarders and shippers who lock in annual rates near today’s levels risk overpaying for most of 2027.

What Yang Ming actually reported

The headline is the jump on a year earlier. In Q3 2025, Yang Ming made TWD 6.05bn after tax on revenue of TWD 42.09bn, with EPS of TWD 1.73, according to its release at the time, carried by Air Freight News. So Q3 2026 profit was about three times higher. Revenue was about 52% higher. EPS went from TWD 1.73 to TWD 5.32.

Margins widened too. In Q3 2026, profit was about 29% of revenue, against about 14% a year earlier. That is our arithmetic from the published figures. A carrier earning that much on each dollar of revenue is not short of cash.

The year has been very uneven. Take Q3 out of the nine-month figures and the first half made about TWD 7.17bn in profit. So Q3 alone made about 72% of the nine-month total. In plain terms, most of the year’s money came in one quarter.

The release explains why. Yang Ming says it “recorded growth in both cargo volume and average freight rates in the first three quarters”. It says consolidated revenue grew 18% year on year. That matches the nine-month figures: TWD 148.73bn this year against TWD 126.27bn for the first nine months of 2025, as Baird Maritime reported last November.

It also names the cause of the rate strength. Demand on long-haul trades picked up from Q2. Meanwhile, according to the release, “congestion at major ports and vessel rerouting via the Cape of Good Hope have further constrained effective capacity”. Effective capacity is the space actually available once you allow for ships stuck in port queues or tied up on longer routes. Sending ships round Africa instead of through Suez absorbs a lot of tonnage.

One thing is missing. The release gives no operating profit, only revenue and after-tax profit. That makes it harder to see how much of the gain came from shipping and how much from other income. Any reading of underlying margins should allow for that.

October: still strong, but the mix is shifting

The October filings are the first hard carrier revenue data for Q4. BigGo Finance reported them on 10 November:

  • Evergreen: TWD 53.603bn, up 7.83% on September and 96.13% on October 2025.
  • Yang Ming: TWD 21.044bn, down 3.02% on September and up 82.45% on the year.
  • Wan Hai: TWD 23.441bn, up 7.65% on September and 124.36% on the year.

Wan Hai’s figure was, per BigGo, “a nearly 50-month high and its seventh consecutive month of month-on-month growth”. The intra-Asia peak season, when cargo moving between Asian countries builds up before year end, is doing the work here.

Yang Ming was the only one of the three to fall on the month. BigGo said the dip came “as market demand slowed following the end of China’s National Day holiday”. That holiday, often called Golden Week, closes many Chinese factories for the first week of October. Shipments usually rush out before it and ease afterwards.

Look at October against Q3. Yang Ming’s Q3 revenue works out to about TWD 21.38bn a month. October’s TWD 21.04bn is a little below that pace. The year-on-year jump is big partly because October 2025 was weak: about TWD 11.5bn, on our arithmetic from BigGo’s figures. It does not mean things are still speeding up.

The year-to-date figures tell the same story. BigGo puts Yang Ming’s first ten months up 23.2% on a year earlier, Evergreen’s up 22.25% and Wan Hai’s up 35.92%. That is solid growth. It is far short of the 80% to 124% October headlines.

Why we think Q3 was the top

There are three reasons.

First, there are too many ships. In its own release, Yang Ming cites Drewry forecasts of 5% fleet capacity growth against 3.1% demand growth in 2026. For 2027, Yang Ming says Drewry sees 8.8% capacity growth against 6.2% demand. BigGo cites Alphaliner’s estimate that “global container capacity supply will grow 4.8% in 2026, significantly outpacing demand growth of 2.5%”. The two forecasters disagree on the size of the gap. Both say capacity outgrows demand this year and next.

Second, the squeeze that made Q3 is easing. Yang Ming itself said “the proportion of major carriers’ routes transiting the Suez Canal is gradually increasing”, according to BigGo. Every service that switches back from the Cape route frees up ships. Those ships end up chasing the same cargo.

Third, the seasonal lift is moving out of the long-haul trades. Evergreen and Wan Hai grew in October, helped by intra-Asia demand. Yang Ming, whose release credits long-haul trades for its gains, slipped. The long-haul trades are where the big Q3 gains came from. They are also where the new ships are going.

There is risk the other way. Yang Ming’s release warns that trade “could still face headwinds from persistent Middle East tensions”. BigGo also lists port strike risk in Europe and the US. It notes the US Trade Representative’s plan to delay port fees on China-linked vessels. Any of these could tighten capacity again for a while. None of them changes the basic supply picture.

What this means for forwarders

Contract season is starting. Carriers come to it with record or near-record quarters and plenty of cash. They do not need to discount to keep the lights on. Expect them to point at Q3 and argue that the market has reset higher.

Our advice is to agree on the cash but not the outlook. Practical steps:

  • Keep 2027 fixed-rate commitments short where you can. Six months beats twelve if the supply forecasts are right.
  • Ask for index-linked pricing. That means the contract rate moves up or down with a published freight index, so you are not stuck above market if spot rates fall.
  • Build in review clauses tied to Suez routings. If more services go back through the canal, transit times and costs should come down, and your rates should follow.
  • Watch intra-Asia space. Wan Hai’s run shows that regional lanes are tight now. Space out of Southeast Asia and southern China could stay firm through December even as long-haul trades soften.

For shippers moving cargo to Europe or the US, the timing matters. Long-haul rates were the main driver of Q3, and they look most exposed as capacity comes back. Paying peak-season prices for a full year is the main risk to avoid.

Do not expect the next round of carrier results to change the tone. Evergreen’s October revenue was up 96% on the year, so its Q3 numbers are likely to look strong too. Carriers will keep presenting them as the new baseline. Forwarders should keep treating them as the peak.

Our call

We expect Yang Ming’s November revenue, filed by 10 December, to come in below October’s TWD 21.04bn. We also expect its Q4 2026 profit, due with its full-year results in the first half of 2027, to come in below Q3’s TWD 18.57bn. If both happen, Q3 2026 will stand as the peak quarter of this cycle for Taiwan’s long-haul carriers. Forwarders who priced 2027 off it will have overpaid.

Sources

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