Yang Ming Marine sees chance to double profit this year

Yang Ming Marine Transport Corp announced that it has not ruled out the possibility of doubling profits this year on the back of changes to its shipping routes and hikes in freight rates.

Our chairman (WH Huang) does not rule out such a possibility... But we do not have an official full-year earnings projection,?a company official said.

Adjustments to its shipping routes are expected to help secure better operational efficiency while hikes in freight rates have already made a contribution to higher revenue. However, market development and variables such as oil costs will affect the company? prospects, the official added. He said the chairman did not elaborate any further.

Yang Ming Marine posted a parent net profit of 1.14 billion TWD on sales of 92.04 billion in 2006. In the five months to May 2007, parent sales increased to 42.20 billion TWD from 34.60 billion a year earlier.