Published on : 04/05/2022 – 13:29
Sea freight is still overheated. Congestion in global maritime traffic benefits carriers. Since the beginning of the health crisis, the price of freight has continued to increase. And the Danish giant Maersk announces, Wednesday, May 4, a new profit record for the first quarter of 2022.
Maersk does not know the crisis, as evidenced by the figures communicated by the group on Wednesday 4 May. This is the 14th consecutive quarter of rising profits for the shipowner. Over the last few months, it has more than doubled its net profit compared to last year. This amounts to 6.8 billion dollars for the first quarter of 2022.
The Scandinavian flagship inevitably benefits from the congestion of world maritime traffic. Shipowners, who provide 90% of freight transport, are unable to meet the exploding demand. Result: the price of the container remains at very high rates.
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The situation in Chinese ports should not help matters. The draconian measures taken by Beijing due to the resumption of the pandemic of Covid-19 could aggravate these bottlenecks in global container shipping.
More recently, the closure of airspace following the invasion of Ukraine by Russia has also slowed container shipments and thus accentuated the surge in freight rates. Maersk, considered a barometer of world trade, is taking advantage of this: the Danish group recently raised its forecast for 2022, expecting a profit of around 30 billion dollars.