The company that was operating a container ship that dramatically ran aground in the Suez Canal in 2021 is awash with cash.
Taiwan shipping giant Evergreen Marine is so flush with money that it’s handing out massive bonuses to its 3100 workers.
This year’s pay bumper is expected to be 10 to 11 months’ worth of workers’ 2022 salary.
Combined with a huge 50-month bonus they were awarded last December, workers are getting about five years’ worth of pay in bonuses alone.
The bonuses will be distributed according to the individual performance of workers, Evergreen said.
Yearly salaries at Evergreen can range between $29, 545 and $114,823 according to the jobs website Comparably.
Evergreen made a whopping $10.9 billion for the financial year ending 2022. That’s a jump in profit of about 39.82 percent, according to The Straits Times, mainly due to growth in demand for consumer goods during the COVID-19 pandemic and rising geopolitical tensions.
The last round of bonuses cost the company about $62 million (NT$1.92 billion).
Social media users in Taiwan responded to the news, with one person writing they were “very envious”.
But the good times for the company may soon be coming to an end.
Bloomberg Intelligence analysts Kenneth Loh and Eric Zhu warned in March that companies were looking for cheaper prices for shipping.
“We see indications that an increasing number of clients are attempting to renegotiate their long-term contracts with Evergreen, which could drive down the long-term contract freight rates that are key to profitability,” they wrote.
That in turn could hit profits at the company.
Evergreen’s name was plastered over the front pages of media outlets in 2021 when the container ship Ever Given blocked the Suez Canal for six days.
The incident prevented hundreds of ships from passing through the critical shortcut through Egypt — meaning vessels either had to circle for days or make the long trip around Africa.