Maersk Line has delivered a first half profit of $273m, erasing the loss of $114m in the year-ago period, due in part to the continued recovery in the container shipping market.
The container carrier unit of Denmark’s AP Moller-Maersk Group reported a first half revenue of $11.59bn, up 15.4% compared to $10.04bn in the previous corresponding period.
“Maersk Line is again profitable delivering in line with guidance, with revenue growing by $1bn year-on-year in the second quarter. The (second quarter) profit was $490m higher than the same quarter last year, based on higher rates,” said Soren Skou, ceo of AP Moller-Maersk.
The group noted that the container shipping market fundamentals continued to improve in the second quarter as demand growth of 4% outgrew nominal supply growth of 1.4%.
The strengthening market fundamentals have started to be reflected in the freight rates, which rose 22% compared to the second quarter of last year and 7.6% compared to the first quarter this year. Freight rates increased by 36% on East-West trades and 17% on North-South trades.
For the full year 2017, Maersk Line is expecting an improvement in excess of $1bn in underlying profit compared to the loss of $384m in 2016, mainly due to improvements in freight rates and partly increasing volumes. Global demand for seaborne container transportation is still expected to increase 2-4%, but in the upper end of the range.
As at end-June 2017, Maersk Line’s fleet consisted of 282 owned vessels totalling around 1.94m teu in capacity and 364 chartered vessels of around 1.46m teu in capacity. The carrier also has 25 vessels of 347,000 teu in capacity in the orderbook for delivery in 2017 and 2018.
The new ships include nine 20,600 teu second generation Triple-E, nine 15,200 teu vessels, and seven 3,600 teu ice-class vessels.
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Source: Bunker Index
