After two very profitable years for the shipping lines, the market is shifting into a post-pandemic normality, reports Sea Intelligence.
Decline in profitability
While 2022-Q4 gave us a first glimpse into what this might look like, 2023-Q1 was the first quarter where the carriers’ operating profits took a real hit. This continued into 2023-Q2, with the combined EBIT dropping by -90% Y/Y to a little over USD 3bn. Further to that, both ZIM and Wan Hai once again recorded an operating loss. While ZIM has had profitability issues in past Q2’s, this was a first for Wan Hai in 2012-2023.
A large reason for the decline in profitability is the decrease in the freight rates, which dropped by -48% to -67% across the shipping lines that publish these figures. Another reason is the decline in transported volumes. What is surprising however, is that ZIM, one of the only two shipping lines to record an EBIT loss, grew their volumes 0.5% globally, and by roughly 13% on both Transpacific and Asia-Europe.
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Source: Sea Intelligence
