Global Shipping Giant Raises Full-year Profit Guidance To $31 Billion

Global container shipping giant Maersk issued a brief announcement announcing another increase in performance guidance for the year.

Regarding the rise in profits, Maersk explained "quite helplessly" that the congestion of the global supply chain caused the freight rate to rising, which took longer than previously expected. As a result, potential earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) this year are expected to be close to $31 billion, compared with the company's previous guidance of $24 billion. For the second quarter to be released tomorrow, the company gave preliminary figures of $21.7 billion in revenue and $8.9 billion in underlying EBIT. According to media statistics, Maersk has raised its profit guidance by more than 60% this year, and the company has also raised its profit guidance three times in 2021 and 2020. In fact, even as a beneficiary, Maersk has repeatedly expressed surprise at the recent chaos in the international shipping market. Almost six months ago, the company only expected a profit of $19 billion in 2022. After successive upward revisions, Maersk's profit guidance for a single quarter is also approaching 10 billion US dollars, reaching the same level as Shell and other crude oil giants. Since U.S. President Biden has previously publicly mocked the oil industry's profits as "God is jealous", the surge in profits in the shipping industry will inevitably not attract his attention because the high cost of the supply chain is also a reason for the high inflation in the United States. Including Maersk, the container shipping industry has said that the surge in freight rates is mainly due to the mismatch between market supply and demand, especially the surge in online shopping demand in the early stage of the epidemic. Although Maersk's crown as "the world's largest shipping company" was taken away by Mediterranean Shipping last year, the company's profit margin still ranks first in the entire industry, and it also attracts more attention due to its status as a listed company. Shares in Maersk, which is traded in Denmark, have tripled in the past two years on the back of record revenue and profits. However, it was not spared from the huge earthquake in the capital market at the beginning of this year, and the stock price is still 19% away from the historical high. Its U.S. stock ADR has fallen 14% this year.