Taiwanese lines Evergreen Marine and Yang Ming Marine Transport posted a profitable second quarter, reversing from their losses in the same period of last year.

Taiwan’s leading container carrier Evergreen posted a second quarter net profit of TWD150.2m ($5m) as against a loss of TWD400.5m in the previous corresponding period. The second quarter profit also recovered from a first quarter loss of TWD1.7bn.

Revenue, however, slipped by 4% year-on-year to TWD35.2bn.

Bronson Hsieh, vice chairman of Evergreen, said earlier that the company is expecting to see profit in the third quarter.

Yang Ming also returned to the black with a profit of TWD224.5m from a deep loss of TWD2.6bn in the same period of 2013m, as well as a loss of TWD1.6bn in the first quarter of this year.

Yang Ming’s revenue rose 5.9% year-on-year to TWD12.23bn, boosted mainly by freight rate hikes for its US trade lines.

Frank Lu, chairman of Yang Ming, said the ongoing economic recovery in the US is driving market demand, while the steadily improving European economy is helping to raise rates for Asia-Mediterranean sea routes.