The second quarter has seen AP Moller - Maersk continue to deliver strong growth and profitability, with record-breaking performance marking the 12th quarter of successive year-on-year earnings progress.
Revenue grew 58% to US$14.2bn in Q2 and Ebit increased almost five times to US$4.1bn. The net result came in at US$3.7bn in the second quarter, bringing the net result for the first half of 2021 to US$6.5bn. Return on invested capital (ROIC) is now at 23.7% for the past 12 months.
“The strong results benefited both from the exceptional circumstances in ocean, where congestion and bottlenecks continued to drive up rates, and from solid progress in executing on our strategic transformation where we kept a firm focus on our customers’ need for integrated solutions across their supply chains,” said CEO Søren Skou.
Thanks to the ‘exceptional earnings’ the company has announced the acquisition of Visible SCM and B2C Europe. “This complements our existing supply chain offering and addresses our customers’ need for e-commerce logistics,” said Skou.
In ocean, profitability in Q2 was driven by revenue growth of US$11.1bn from US$6.6bn, while Ebit increased to US$3.6bn from US$0.5bn.
The growth, says Skou, came from a 15% rebound in volumes and an increase in average freight rates of 59% as both long-term contracts rates with key clients increased and short-term contracts were still impacted by congestion and bottlenecks.
Logistics & Services delivered 38% revenue growth of US$2.2bn in Q2 with more than half coming from the top ocean customers.
Gateway Terminals also recorded a strong Q2, with volumes rebounding 24%.
“The outlook for Q3 is strong and we expect that the current momentum in ocean will continue into Q4, also benefiting our terminals business. Logistics & Services will continue its strong growth pattern for the rest of the year,” Skou added.
“As communicated on August 3, https://www.freightnews.co.za/article/maersk-revises-full-year-guidance-rates-rise-59, we have upgraded our guidance for 2021 to an underlying Ebitda of US$18-19.5bn, an Ebit of US$14-15.5bn, and a free cash flow expected to be minimum US$11.5bn.”
