While many industries and companies will be grateful when the bottlenecks in global trade in goods come to an end, this is not good news for shipping companies. Management expects adjusted earnings before interest and taxes (adjusted EBIT) to be around USD 19 billion (EUR 16.6 billion) in 2022, as the company announced on Wednesday when presenting the figures for the past year in Copenhagen. That would be slightly less than the $19.8 billion for 2021. The basis for the assumption is a strong first, but shipping will normalize in the second half of the year.
The maritime segment (Ocean) accounts for the bulk of Maersk’s business. However, Maersk only expects growth of two to four percent for 2022, while segment sales increased by 65 percent last year. So far, Maersk has benefited from the currently huge demand for transport capacities. These cause the prices – in industry jargon freight rates – for transport by sea to rise, which has caused the profits of all container shipping companies to go through the roof this year.
The reason is a combination of several factors: The corona pandemic has thrown the schedules of the liner shipping companies so mixed up that ships and containers are often not where they should be. In addition, the economy, which picked up earlier and stronger than in Germany, has increased the demand for sea transport, especially in China and the USA, to such an extent that capacities are more than exhausted.
Maersk acquires Pilot Freight Services
The Danish shipping company is expanding its onshore transport business with a takeover. Pilot Freight Services will be taken over for 1.68 billion US dollars (1.47 billion euros), Maersk announced in Copenhagen on Wednesday. The US company offers logistics, especially for large, unwieldy goods, from the so-called first to the last mile, i.e. from ordering the goods to delivery.
According to the announcement, Pilot Freight Services will primarily handle large and bulky goods from online trade for Maersk. The purchase price corresponds to an enterprise value (including debt) of Pilot Freight of 1.8 billion US dollars. Regulatory approvals for the transaction are still pending.
The news put Maersk stock under pressure on Wednesday. At times, the minus in Copenhagen is 0.55 percent to 21.57 Danish kroner.
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