Both the Maersk Group and Maersk Line returned profits in the first quarter of this year. The Group delivered a profit of US$790 million, a 34% drop compared to the profit of US$1.2 billion in the first quarter of 2012. Meanwhile, the line made a profit of US$204m, a whopping 134% up on the loss of US$599m last year. “We have improved our performance in the past year and we are satisfied with our result for the first quarter,” said Group CEO Nils S Andersen. “Maersk Line is much more competitive and has gained strength to deal with the challenging shipping markets.” The significant turnaround in the line’s financial performance was achieved through lower costs – as revenue of US$6.3bn was unchanged. The average freight rates increased 4.7% compared to Q1 2012, partly offset by 4% lower volumes. Total cost per FFE decreased by 7.1% mainly driven by vessel improved network efficiencies. Maersk Line’s fleet capacity increased 4.2%. Maersk Line continued to utilise super slow steaming to reduce emissions and save bunker cost. The 26% decrease in bunker cost to US$1.4bn compared to Q1 2012 was due to 19% lower bunker consumption and 9% decrease in average bunker price. The line’s forecast for the year indicates that demand is expected to stay subdued while capacity will grow significantly. Accordingly, conditions for the container industry remained challenging and managing supply would be even more important this year, the report added. Maersk Line still expects a result for the full year to be above the US$461m for 2012. This is based primarily on further unit cost reductions and the stronger result in Q1 compared to last year. Global demand for seaborne containers is expected to increase by 2%-4% in 2013. The expectations are lower on the Asia-Europe trades, but will be supported by what is forecast to be higher growth for imports to emerging economies. “Overall, the result represents the fourth consecutive profitable quarter in a challenging business environment. However, the profitability level remains unsatisfactory,” the report concluded.
