Surging exports to the United States from Southeast Asia helped some shipping lines negotiate a peak-season surcharge for moving cargo, but carriers based further north in the region were harder pressed to achieve increases.
The Transpacific Stabilisation Agreement (TSA), an informal discussion group for the Asia-US trades' big carriers, sought a peak-season surcharge of US$450 per feu (40-ft equivalent unit) but mixed success prompted analysts to downgrade ratings for some north Asian carriers.
Investment bank Merrill Lynch this week lowered ratings on two of Taiwan's biggest carriers, Evergreen Marine and Yangming Transportation, and suggested the container shipping sector may have reached its earnings peak.
'We now have a negative outlook for shipping stocks and lowered our rating for Evergreen from buy to neutral,' a Taipei-based analyst for the bank said in a recent report. 'Although its earnings are high compared to historical levels, catalysts to further share price performance are likely to be muted as we enter a cyclical downturn in long-haul freight rates.'
An executive for Nippon Yusen Kaisha, Japan's biggest carrier by volume, said it had achieved peak-season increases of US$200 to $400 per box but admitted falling short of the TSA target even though vessels were 'very full to the US'.
Similar success levels were reported in Hong Kong, where exports by sea to the US rose marginally in the first five months, rising HK$28 million to $83.22 billion.
