The pandemic has created greater demand for goods to be shipped and now Maersk is significantly upgrading its expected result for 2021, BT reports.
According to a company statement to the stock exchange, Maersk is raising the company’s expected operating profit in 2021 to between DKK 87.6 and 97 billion. Before the upgrade, Maersk expected an operating profit of DKK 56.3 and 68.8 billion. It is especially goods that are to be shipped from China to the United States that drive the company’s great activity.
Furthermore, Maersk states that the company has come out of the second quarter with an operating profit of DKK 25.7 billion which is more than a fivefold increase over the same period last year.
The Danish shipping giant could already see in April that operations were going so well that the expected operating profit had to be adjusted upwards. According to Maersk, the first quarter of this year was the company’s largest profit for a single quarter ever with DKK 16.8 billion. It was close to surpassing last year’s entire profit, which amounted to DKK 17.9 billion.
The reason why Maersk’s operations are doing so well is, among other things, that the pandemic has driven up demand for goods. At the same time, there has been a shortage of containers, which has meant that Maersk has been able to drive up the price per container.
According to the stock exchange announcement, the volume of containers to be shipped increased by 15 percent in the second quarter. At the same time, the average price per container increased by as much as 59 percent. Maersk expects that these conditions will last until at least the end of 2021.
The company’s earnings in the third quarter are expected to exceed the second-quarter earnings.
