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ZIM Integrated Shipping Services Ltd. (ZIM)

Q4 2021 Earnings Call· Wed, Mar 9, 2022

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Transcript

Operator

Operator

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by. I’m Natalie, your Chorus Call operator. Welcome, and thank you for joining the ZIM Integrated Shipping Services Ltd. Full Year and Fourth Quarter 2021 Earnings Call. I would now like to turn the conference over to Elana Holzman, Head of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Elana Holzman

Management

Thank you, and welcome to ZIM’s Full Year and Fourth Quarter 2021 Financial Results Conference Call. Joining me on the call today are Eli Glickman, ZIM’s President and CEO; and Xavier Destriau, ZIM’s CFO. Before we begin, I would like to remind you that during the course of this call, we will make forward-looking statements regarding expectations, predictions, projections or future events or results. We believe that our expectations and assumptions are reasonable. We wish to caution you that such statements reflect only the company’s current expectations and that actual events or results may differ, including materially. You are kindly referred to consider the risk factors and cautionary language described in the documents the company filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including our 2021 annual report filed on Form 20-F today, March 9, 2022. We undertake no obligation to update these forward-looking statements. At this time, I would like to turn the call over to ZIM’s CEO, Eli Glickman. Eli?

Eli Glickman

Management

Thank you, Elana, and welcome to today’s call. Before we turn to our call, I would like to take a moment and say that over the past couple of weeks, we have witnessed with great concern in segments the union strategy unfolding in Ukraine and the suffering of the people there. Our hearts go out to the men, women and children affected by the environments. The safety of our employees and their family has been and continues to be our highest priority. Since the outbreak of the war, we have made every effort to assist them to stay safe. We are also in touch with customer in Ukraine, and support them in any way we can. Our duty towards reserve human life exceeds all other considerations. ZIM has donated to help build and operate hospital to care for Ukraine war victims. Now back to the business. 2021 was an extraordinary year for ZIM. We executed at the highest level and achieved many important milestones that are listed on this slide. These actions and decisions we took in 2021, making me very optimistic about our future. We have demonstrated that we are a decisive and fast-growing company with a leadership team and corporate culture to take full advantage of both near and long-term favorable fundamentals for container shipping. We believe that the container liner industry has fundamentally changed in recent period and giving ZIM -- and given ZIM an all competitive edge, we see a bright future for ZIM in 2022 and beyond. I note that today, ZIM is in a stronger position than ever. In Slide #5 highlights, we highlight the number of key operational accomplishments that contributed to our 2021 record results. It is important to me to thank our employees worldwide for the hard work and dedication during…

Xavier Destriau

Management

Thank you, Eli, and I also would like to welcome everyone, and thank you for joining us today. On Slide 9, we highlight that on PR demonstrating our extraordinary financial performance. These were once again driven by continued elevated rates in the spot market as well as higher than specific annual contract rates. ZIM has continued to prioritize better-paying cargo and undertaken initiatives to capitalize on the e-commerce group, which are key differentiators that have allowed us to bear even higher rates. Specifically, average freight rate per TEU of $3,630 in the first quarter, is 139% higher compared to the fourth quarter of 2020, and it’s 12% higher than our average freight rate in the first quarter of this year. For the full year of 2021, our average freight rate per TEU stood at $2,786 more than double compared to 2020. Our free cash flow in the fourth quarter totaled $1.7 billion compared to $391 million in the comparable quarter of 2020. That is an increase of more than 325%. For the full year, free cash flow was $4.9 billion compared to $845 million in 2020. Turning to our balance sheet in 2021, total debt increased by $1.5 billion, that is mainly driven by the increased number of vessel fixtures that we concluded during the period and also higher volume, and for longer average duration. Over the same period, cash position grew by more than $3.2 billion, therefore, driving net to a point that the company closed the period for 2021 in a positive net cash situation. Despite longer term charges becoming more the average remaining duration of our current charter capacity today in . On this area, from the 34.8 months that we disclosed in November and rigor current operating capacity to the scheduled delivery of our newbuild vessels.…

Operator

Operator

And the first question is from the line of Randy Giveans from Jefferies.

Randy Giveans

Analyst

Congrats obviously, I mean on the quarter, the year, massive dividends. So I have a few questions, lot to cover, but I’ll try to keep it brief. For your 2022 EBITDA guidance range, obviously, very strong, also fairly tight, right? So I guess, what assumptions or maybe total volumes and average rate are you using to get to the midpoint of guidance? And then in terms of revenue visibility to keep that tight range, any updates on your upcoming contracts in terms of amount of volumes or average rate duration?

Xavier Destriau

Management

Yes. So starting with the first part of the question when it comes to our volume assumptions in 2022, after having grown in 2021 by more than 33%, we are becoming a bit more conservative when it comes to 2022, growth volume assumptions and that we are factoring in 6% to 7% volume growth in 2022, which should be slightly above the average market growth, thanks to the full year effect of the in 2021. From a rate perspective, as we’ve mentioned, I think, in one of the slides, our operating rate assumption for 2022, if we were to compare it to the average rate that we delivered in 2021 is going to be higher. And that is because we are selling now in the first quarter of 2022 after having closed a very strong quarter in the fourth quarter of 2021. We see the resilience in the freight rates still very much there. SCFI continues to be extremely strong, therefore, pushing the -- or sustaining strong profit as we enter into 2022. And when it comes to the visibility of the second part of the year, this is where I think we get the also added visibility of what we expect to see in terms of the contract toehold that we secure with our contracted customers, especially relevant on the transpacific trade, 50% of our volume that we -- this is still not yet finalized that we have better visibility today. We expect to close on average the contract at a premium rate compared to what to be secured last season, which will also support the overall -- or the average pay towards the second half of 2022.

Randy Giveans

Analyst

Okay. Can you quantify that a little bit better than is that 5% or 80%, right, in terms of the average rates? And then for the duration, is the majority going to be 12 months?

Xavier Destriau

Management

Starting with the second part of your question, when we talk about the duration, yes, the vast majority fee of our contracts are likely to be covering a 12-month’s play, as it has been the norm in the past. That doesn’t mean that we will not have some contracts that may extend the border beyond 12 months, but some customers are asking us to consider. But by and large, the vast majority should be for and then when it comes to you, where we will be landing in terms of the average freight rate that we bear for the contracted volume, we can say that we expect it to be significantly higher than was in 2021. It’s still a little bit too early for us to be to quantify to what extent that may be.

Randy Giveans

Analyst

That’s target. We can wait a few months for that. All right. Second question, last one for me. Just around capital return, right? How did you and the Board determine that $17 dividend, clearly above my expectations and probably anyone’s. Why did you decide on the 50% of net income all for dividends, maybe not balance that with share repurchases kind of fall through that process?

Xavier Destriau

Management

Yes. What is very important for us is that we deliver on the policies we made to the market when we predicted it more than a year ago. And we always said that it was high in the agenda of the management of the Board to return capital to shareholders. And as you may remember, we have refined and updated our dividend guidance -- dividend policy over the quarter of 2021. So we ended up saying back in Q4 last year that the intention would be to pay between 30% to 50% to return between 30% to 50% of net income back to shareholders. We have closed in 2021 very strongly. I think the numbers do speak for themselves. When we also looked ahead into 2022, we are cautiously optimistic that in 2022, at least at the beginning of the year passed by strongly. So we think all the conditions are actually met to deliver on our promises towards the 50% range as opposed towards the role of 40%. That’s the rationale behind. We’re also looking obviously at how do we best allocate our capital. We want to make sure we continue to invest in enhancing our commercial prospects, but we secure the equipment, the vessel that we need, that we are also continuing to invest in our digital transformation but the financial results of 2021, again, coupled with the outlook of 2022 will be justified for us to return on the high end of the range. Now you also sequential buyback, why not considering a share buyback? We always did mention as well that there are other ways to return capital to shareholders, not only dividend, share buyback could be an adoption. For now, what we wanted to promote is again better track record to our shareholders by delivering on our dividend commitment, not only in terms of absolute numbers, but also in terms of frequency of payments, as they will be paid quarterly, again, trying to set track record here, which we believe should unlock shareholder value.

Randy Giveans

Analyst

Share buybacks would have been the cherry on top, but otherwise excellent results.

Eli Glickman

Management

We see that you’re consistent and it’s okay. And we’re looking forward, but we think that this is the best way to deliver and to show results to shareholders and looking around, say, the world stock shareholders, the stock rates today until the last. We think this is going to be the best way to deliver to shareholders.

Operator

Operator

The next question is from the line of Muneeba Kayani from Bank of America.

Muneeba Kayani

Analyst

I firstly wanted to ask about kind of the vessels waiting outside the port of LA and Long Beach. We’ve seen that kind of come down over the last couple of weeks. So if you can share why you think that has come down and what your outlook is for congestion at LA, Long Beach specifically? And if I may just get my second question now itself. The dockworkers union, the ILWU negotiations, how are those coming along with the contact ending mid of this year? And how do you factor that into your guidance? And what’s the impact on the spot change? And then if I could ask a third one, why do you -- with the strong growth in volumes last year and kind of your expectations for the market this year, why is growth slowing down this year? And kind of do you have any flexibility to be higher than kind of that 6%, 7% this year in terms of volumes?

Xavier Destriau

Management

Yes. So I will start with the first one is very visible and I think under the spotlight, there are a lot of metrics that are being shared on a weekly basis how to best monitor the bottleneck that is very much prevailing in this terminal. There are a couple of things. Let’s remember that today, our February is normally a week month in normal circumstances. There is still a little bit of seasonality in our industry. We are just around just after Chinese New Year. And there are a little bit less pressure from a volume perspective point few weeks, which to some extent, also start to assist in clearing maybe some of the congestion in LA, hence why mitigate a little bit less vessels. Another thing is that, it does not necessarily mean because we see less vessel in the vicinity after the port of LA that those vessels are not being pushed back a little bit further down off of it, and on their way to -- so the way you see that is to a reduction in span of a couple of weeks at the time where seasonality is also normally suggesting that the volume should reduce and is already of a new channel. That maybe too early to represent. I would add to that when things are starting to get maybe a bit better seems to be getting a bit better in LA. Situation is worsening in some other terminals being of the East Coast or Vancouver commitment So the congestion and the bottleneck are still very much there for us as an industry to navigate with. Then the second question that you were referring to, when is the expectation with respect to the negotiation of the unions that should take place in the coming…

Operator

Operator

The next question is from the line of Omar Nokta from Clarkson Securities.

Omar Nokta

Analyst

Yes, congratulations on a phenomenal 2021. And clearly, the guidance for this year is quite strong and above expectations. I wanted to ask just about the current climate and how that’s affecting your business. I know you touched on it a little bit, both Eli and Xavier in your opening comments. I know, obviously, the biggest footprint for them is the transpacific. But in general, are you seeing any direct impacts from the current Russian Ukraine situation on your activities?

Xavier Destriau

Management

Yes, you’re right. Obviously, we do see some impact, but in terms of the way we manage the services that we have that call the Black Sea, Ukraine, and we have , Romania and ex-Russia, the tons. So we are -- also we are exiting those 2 countries, Ukraine and Russia. We are redirecting capacity. So from operations perspective, we are taking actions and we are making sure that the vessels will quite definitely struggle elsewhere. So this is what we do. From a financial impact perspective today, we see a very limited effect. And again, for us, those services really present a not significant percentage of our overall tariffs. So really we see when we do take actions, but as of today, with the expectation or the assumption we said that the context remains local for us, we do not envisage a material effect.

Omar Nokta

Analyst

Okay. And then obviously, one of the big concerns here recently is the surge in oil and commodity prices in general and how that could potentially start to stress consumer spending. How are you guys seeing that risk, I guess in general? And how you’re viewing the business, but also with respect to the guidance you’ve given today? And how are you dealing with maybe heightened risk of impact on consumer spending?

Xavier Destriau

Management

Yes. So for now, we have to work with what we know. We need to make assumptions when we provide indeed our guidance. We cannot today anticipate what will be the duration of the conflict. We cannot anticipate whether the conflict might spread to other locations and have potential additional impact on trade that would be more relevant to us. So, we are obviously monitoring and we continue to monitor the situation. And I’m not going to be saying on a weekly basis because we do it on a daily basis. And if there was to be some widening or some additional impact to be anticipated, we would obviously factor those in and we have to revise our guidance perspective that in the prior year, we would obviously do so. When it comes to the effect which is very visible today, which is the increased bunkering cost, which is skyrocketing very, very quickly. We -- as you know, we have a quite efficient path to the that we will continue to enforce to our customers, which in a way, a natural hedge part of mechanism. Anything has a limit, obviously, and if the fincos were to remain elevated for a very significant duration, then we will need to factor that into our future estimates. But very difficult to say today -- we anticipate today what will be the big price for the second half of the year, which is what is relevant to us when it comes to 2022 guidance by the way, because as you know, a pretty much .

Omar Nokta

Analyst

Okay. Yes. And just the -- you mentioned just on the bunker fuel, you were indicating that the latest spike, this is something we’re able to pass through, I guess, in the short term and then potentially the long-term still needs to be assessed. Is that right?

Xavier Destriau

Management

Yes, there is a lot of uncertainty ahead as you likely pointed out, so we cannot make assumptions here. But if the situation was to remain or to continue to scale to a point where the fuel bunker cost would become significantly higher than it is today. The good thing maybe if you look at our expectations for the 2022, we already have assumed that the average freight rate I think on the spot market will gradually normalize and gradually come down leaving room in a way for additional product fuel cost, but we have to monitor and track the situation as we .

Omar Nokta

Analyst

Great. Yes. Okay. And one more, and I’ll turn it over. Just maybe more about the business. And obviously, for the past several years, trans-Pacific has been your main footprint. But intra-Asia now has really started to pick up and become over 1/4 of your volumes. How are you seeing that develop here over the next, say, 12 to 24 months with the new ships you’re bringing on? Do you see the Asian market becoming just as dominant as trans-Pacific in terms of your business footprint or potentially getting larger?

Xavier Destriau

Management

We will see there is still a lot to capture to contribute to the some extent that trans-Pacific goes today. But you’re right that it is an extremely dynamic trade where we are growing quarter after quarter. Also, of course, the definition of intra-Asia includes Asia to Australia and also Asia to East and West Africa. So it’s the Asia, I should really emphasize here. And we’ve been quite active in growing our volume between Asia to Australia and between Asia to Africa. So we see quite a lot of opportunity to continue to grow in this region or also within the intra-Asia area. So that from a volume perspective, we will catch up the intra-Asia in a way we catch up with the prevailing trans-Pacific trade.

Operator

Operator

The next question is from the line of Sathish Sivakumar from Citigroup.

Sathish Sivakumar

Analyst

And again, congratulations on the results. I’ve got 3 questions. So first on the booking visibility. So Xavier, earlier you mentioned that are and how visible -- and also you said that you had a strong Q4, you had a good visibility to Q1. So if you could actually comment on what are you actually seeing in terms of your bookings on the vessels like on which window forward that you can actually see it as of today?

Xavier Destriau

Management

Yes. So today, we continue to see very strong demand from a booking perspective. And as I pointed out earlier on, we are just a few weeks after Chinese New Year. So we see the business bookings coming back faster in 2022 than what used to be the case in prior year, which is a good indication that there is still a lot of unsatisfied demand. And as you know, we also have because of the stronger -- the strong demand that we’ve been experiencing in the weeks ahead of the Chinese New Year, we had another rollover toggle that we have been taken on board also during those weeks on a non-Chinese New Year. So the recovery in volume from a seasonality perspective is very strong and it’s coming in very fast, so which for the first quarter of 2021 did allow us to confirm that we expect a very strong first quarter in line with the first quarter of -- I’m sorry, 2021. The first quarter of 2022 is coming in very strong in a similar type of shift than the fourth quarter of 2021.

Sathish Sivakumar

Analyst

My second question is on the charter capacity. In the Slide 18, you actually meant -- given a nice bit around how the industry has changed. So there the average duration is 3.5 years, right? So that’s again industry data -- so how does it actually come ? What is your average charter duration capacity today?

Eli Glickman

Management

When we charter or when we secure a new charter in contract, the vast majority of our charter agreements now are signed for a period of between 3 to 5 years. And I’m leaving aside the long-term charters that we entered into in 2021 for the guiding capacity, charter agreement that we secured for the usual providers today 3 to 5. Part of that consummates when it comes to looking at what is the average reminder of the duration of the contract that were today of the 118 vessels that we were operating as of the end of 2021. This is a bit more than 2 years on average. So I think it is a 26 months or so that there is a liability that you see on balance sheet as of end of 2021 represents, 26 months’ worth of charter for 118 vessels.

Sathish Sivakumar

Analyst

So 26 months of charter is left on an average on your portfolio. And so, how does that would tally with the vessel deliveries that you are likely to get in ‘23 and ‘24?

Xavier Destriau

Management

You’re right. It is very important that we’ve been working hard as early as of the second half of 2020, by the way, to make sure that we were in early 2021 when we decided to first . So, we are looking at ensuring that when those vessels start being delivered to us as early as January or February, the first one will be delivered to us in 2023 and then one a month, so that we have the ability to either redeliver some of our currently operated capacity or keep the capacity of some of it and grow and increase . So we will have the option to do either or take obviously the delivery of this new business and either renew these contracts, some of the contracts that we commit for renewal at that time or we negotiate and secure that tonnage for longer. We have 30 vessels that we promised for renewal in .

Sathish Sivakumar

Analyst

In 2023, yeah?

Xavier Destriau

Management

Yes.

Sathish Sivakumar

Analyst

Okay. And the last question is actually around the CapEx. So if you look at your 2021 CapEx, it was about $1 billion of CapEx. And I assume that the majority of that CapEx is related to equipment, right? Is there any vessel-related payments that are done in 2021? And how should we think about going into 2022?

Xavier Destriau

Management

You’re right. Most of the CapEx of 2021 related to equipment, close to $900 million of cash CapEx related to the 6,000 TEUs that we will see in our fleet of containers. We have a little bit of a cash CapEx related to -- remember, we acquired seven secondhand vessels in the course of -- in the fourth quarter 2021. We got delivery of 5 out of the gate. And so, there’s been some payment with respect a little bit more or less in the first quarter of 2022 when we will get the last 3 vessels that we acquired in the fourth quarter. But looking into 2022 in terms of cash CapEx, we will have a little bit of a vessel farness in terms of equipment, we anticipate maybe around the of additional equipment to continue to renew and recognize our fleet of containers.

Operator

Operator

The next question is from the line of Alexia Dodani from Barclays.

Alexia Dodani

Analyst

Congratulations for strong performance. I have 3 questions as well. Just firstly on CapEx following on the question earlier, if we had $1.1 billion of net CapEx in ‘21, how much does this step down in ‘22? And also with relation to the debt service payments that was $1.4 billion, how should we expect that number to fall in ‘22?That’s one -- my first question. My second question is, I read down on the slide that you have the ambition of growing to 1 million TEUs. By what period is that? And should we expect the 125 vessels you currently operate to increase by the statistics that are coming on board to get to that 1 million target? And then finally, can you just give us a little bit more color of what you think the practical implications of the new IMO regulations that are coming to effect next year will mean full capacity? Because when I look at the scrapping rate that Alphaliner expects, it’s not significant. And so, I’m just trying to understand the levers to what happens post the introduction of regulation next year.

Xavier Destriau

Management

Okay. So maybe starting with the CapEx question you had.

Alexia Dodani

Analyst

Xavier Destriau

Management

Yes. So the 1 million TEU refers to equipment containers. That’s the capacity of containers that we have, not the capacity or the . So we increased our fleet of equipment from 620,000 TEU at the beginning of the year, close to 1 million TEU at the end of the year. And so, that’s one thing. And then we, at the same time, increased our operating capacity when it comes to vessel, from 85 vessels that we at the beginning of the year 2021 to 119 and 125 vessels that we operate today. So that’s the -- maybe the clarification on the 1 million TEU related here to equipment. With regards to the question on CapEx for 2022, the overall cash CapEx that we would anticipate adding the $200 million of equipment, maybe doubling it to add a little bit more on the digital front to add on our IT investments and also cater for the what is left to be paid on the vessel side. So $400 million, $500 million together, it should be a good assumption for cash CapEx into 2022. And with respect to the last question on the IMO effect, I expect the impact in 2023. Yes, the -- it’s difficult to assess what will be the overall effect on the effective deployed capacity in 2023. Just to give maybe some indication, when we look at the in the water, the 25 million TEU that vessels altogether. As of the first quarter of January 2023, half of that capacity will be 15 years old and older, 15 years old and older. And obviously, the over the capacity of the vessel, the more difficult vehicles of the more challenging it would be for that given vessel to meet the emission regulation criteria. So in 2023, gradually over time, what we anticipate is quite quickly that the regulation is imposed more and more restriction on part of addition, which will to some extent affect the effective capacity as it will improve on the vessel operator to lower the speed of operation. And I think there are some studies out there suggesting that if we were to reduce the speed value at 5%, it will have an effect of 7% of the effective capacity. And that’s what we are referring to when we think that there will be a lot of pressure on effective supply in 2022 and onwards.

Alexia Dodani

Analyst

And can I just check on the debt service payments? Should we expect that number to be flat year-over-year? Or should we expect those 22 vessels that need to be recharged that will price in at a higher rate and drive a little bit of an increase? I’m just trying to understand what drives the $1.500 million increase in the depreciation. Obviously, CapEx is coming down and the cash CapEx coming down. So should the debt service payment go up?

Xavier Destriau

Management

You’re making a good point. Let me just clarify to you. As I mentioned, now all the vessels that we currently operate or almost all the vessels that we currently operated on the long-term charter win, which means that from an accounting perspective, everything is classified as one of these assets on the balance sheet and dependent in the lease liability. So the debt that you see on balance sheet is mostly made of the lease liabilities that come as a result of us entering into those contractual obligation vis-à-vis the financial providers. So -- and on the depreciation side, if you look at the depreciation line, what is it that we depreciate is the asset -- one of these assets that we’ve just booked on balance sheet when we secure those contracts, and you have the depreciation of the containers of the equipment. And with regard for 2022, you see that there is $1.5 billion difference between EBIT and EBITDA. This is the amortization of our assets, our assets being mainly the vessels I just talked about and the containers. Take $100 million for containers, the rest is assets. This asset is of $1.4 billion that you see in amortization, pretty much perfectly with the debt service because the debt, as we said, is also only the reflection of those commissions. So the debt service is a with the amortization that you see on balance sheet. The one thing that I just would like also to highlight or 2 things that I would like to highlight to complete the picture here is that first, the -- as a result of the new relationship with 2M, we are no longer buying slots from our partners as we are only -- so there is no longer any financial exchange between Maersk and MSC, meaning that from a cost perspective, the chartering of the swap buy is no longer there in 2022 as from the 1st of January onwards -- 1st of April onwards. And so, that contributes as well to reducing our projects. Second and last, very important as well, , meaning that if you look at the amortization of $1.5 billion, that includes not only the depreciation of the asset itself, but also the revenue cost of operating those assets, meaning the related the cost and the technical management of the vessel.

Alexia Dodani

Analyst

Understood. And actually, if you don’t mind, can I just ask a very quick one. On your guidance for ‘22, what is the bunker fuel assumption within the guidance range you’ve given?

Xavier Destriau

Management

That assumption is extremely relevant for me to disclose that information. As I mentioned earlier, we are working under the assumption that any increase in fuel costs will be platformed to our customers at the .

Operator

Operator

The next question is from the line of Sam Bland from J.P. Morgan.

Sam Bland

Analyst

The first one is on cash tax, which has been quite low for now. Could we have a bit of color on how to think about cash tax, particularly in 2022? Is there a catch-up element for that? The second one is on your exposure to contracted rates. I think across the whole portfolio, that was -- about 25% of volume was on contracted rates. Is that still -- is it still roughly around that kind of level? Or would you like to increase it? And the third question is on the 36 new ships on order. Can you talk about the how much higher the unit cost is on operating those ships versus the ones you’ve already got charter costs on those 36 new ships higher?

Xavier Destriau

Management

Okay. So the first one on the cash tax, yes, in 2022, we will be paying whatever is left due in relation to 2021 and that is $500 million benefit. And we will also pay on account of what is likely to be our overall tax liability of 2022. So there will be, from a cash perspective, a catch-up in 2022. So that’s for the first question. The second question with regards to contract, we indeed continue to see that expect to lock in 50% of our trans-Pacific volume for contract cargo and since trans-Pacific volume account for half of the overall volume that we carry, that’s how we come to the 25% of the contracted cargo. So that number is -- normally should be similar year-over-year. And we should not expect a significant shift in this respect. With regards to your third question and the expected cost of operation of the new build capacity that we’ve and others. Actually, the cost of operation will be lower when they will get the delivery of that capacity compared to the cost of operating the capacity that we operate today. And this is exactly why we entered into those contracts early in 2021 because we wanted to get away from the high reliance that we had on the spot charter market for vessels that we knew we had a long-term store. And so, we are -- and you have to look at those vessels in terms of costing in light of the new building market, new building price as opposed to the charter market. So the cost, the TEU of this new, more efficient and green advantage will actually reduce compared to the cost that -- reduce compared to the capacity that it will replace when we take delivery of those as opposed to increase.

Sam Bland

Analyst

Just to sure, is that a lower cost versus chartering a ship today or a lower cost versus, let’s say, the pre-COVID level?

Xavier Destriau

Management

I mean, because if you look at the chartering market, it’s been extremely volatile over the past few years. So pre-COVID, the chartering market was at low level. So I wouldn’t suggest that this is the right benchmark to take. But clearly, if you compare the cost of operation of this in 2021 and what we expect to see in 2022 with what will be the cost in 2023 and beyond, once we take delivery of that vessel, it actually will improve.

Operator

Operator

This ends the Q&A session, and I would like to hand back to ZIM’s CEO, Mr. Eli Glickman for closing comments.

Eli Glickman

Management

Thank you very much, operator. 2021 was a remarkable year for ZIM. In our first year as a public company, we delivered record results significantly exceeding all our regional projections. This performance was driven by unusual market conditions, which pushed freight rates to historical high, but also thanks to our proactive strategies, which enabled us to outperform in terms of growth and profitability. Today, we are sharing these remarkable results with our shareholders. In total, since our IPO, we are returning to shareholders approximately $2.6 billion or $21.5 per share. We also provided a strong outlook for 2022, according to which we expect our 2022 performance to be similar to 2021. My observation about ZIM’s future, on our anticipated performance in 2022. In the past year, we utilized our strong cash generation to strengthen ZIM operationally and commercially to improve our competitive position, and we are excited to carry this strong swift momentum forward, reinforced by our forward view of container shipping, I’m very positive about ZIM’s prospects and believe we’ll continue to generate substantial capability and deliver long-term value to our shareholders. Thank you again for joining us today. Have a good day.

Operator

Operator

Ladies and gentlemen, the conference has now concluded, and you may disconnect your telephone. Thank you for joining, and have a pleasant day. Goodbye.