Despite low volumes during much of the last year, Maersk has announced its profitability grew throughout the first nine months and ended 2020 with record fourth-quarter results in the logistics and terminals sectors, boosting income by more than US$3 billion.
[s2If is_user_logged_in()]Shipping lines have shown remarkable resilience in earnings during a period of declining box volumes and demand through the Covid-19 period, with container lines managing the situation, decreasing their operational costs and increasing profits.
“Last year, 2020, will forever be remembered for the Covid-19 pandemic that negatively impacted our lives, jobs, businesses and the global economy,” said Søren Skou, CEO of A.P. Moller – Maersk, in the carrier’s yearly results announcement and he highlighted the acceleration of the company’s transformation, as well as the earnings increase.
Maersk grew underlying earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) by 44% to US$8.2 billion and revenue to US$39.7 billion in 2020 compared to last year’s figures.
While the demand surge in the second half of the year created supply chain bottlenecks, including vessel and container shortages, and led to higher rates that contributed approximately US$1.5 billion to results, Maersk’s Ocean sector further improved its intrinsic performance by focusing on costs, agile capacity management and launching new digital offerings.
In addition, the Logistics & Services sector of the Danish company grew to US$7 billion and EBITDA improved 110% to US$454 million, supported by the acquisition of Performance Team as well as improved performance in intermodal, air freight forwarding and warehousing and distribution.
Søren Skou concluded, “Financially, we left 2020 with a very strong balance sheet and little debt, which will allow us to continue to invest in our transformation and grow profitably. We are well equipped to deal with the ongoing market volatility and also to benefit from a world that hopefully starts to re-open.”
Maersk stated it will illustrate its path forward and the synergies between Ocean and both Logistics & Services and Terminals at a capital markets day on 11 May 2021.
A.P. Moller – Maersk has forecast another year of earnings growth and transformation progress despite the expected continuation of market uncertainty. “We expect the current, exceptional situation to continue into 2021 with Q1 to be stronger than Q4, followed by a normalisation thereafter, and announce guidance for the full-year 2021 of an underlying EBITDA in the range of US$8.5-10.5 billion,” the company said.
Furthermore, the ocean sector is expected to grow in line with the global container demand at an expected 3-5% in 2021, with the highest growth seen in the first half-year.
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