In the second quarter of 2021, A.P. Moller – Maersk continued to deliver strong growth and profitability, with record-breaking performance marking the 12th quarter of successive year-on-year earnings progress.
Revenue grew 58 pct. to USD 14.2bn in Q2 and EBIT increased almost five times to USD 4.1bn. The net result came in at USD 3.7bn in the second quarter, bringing the net result for the first half of 2021 to USD 6.5bn. Return on invested capital (ROIC) is now at 23,7 pct. for the past 12 months.
On a recent press statement, CEO Søren Skou said: “Our exceptional earnings and high cash flow enable us to further accelerate our transformation, invest in growing our activities, also through acquisitions and at the same time return cash to shareholders.”
He explained that the strong results benefited “both from the exceptional circumstances in Ocean, where congestions 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.”
In the Ocean division, profitability in Q2 was driven by revenue growth to $11.1bn from $6.6bn and EBIT increased to S3.6bn from $0.5bn. The growth came from a 15 percent rebound in volumes and an increase in average freight rates of 59 percent, as both long-terms contracts rates with key clients increased and short-term contracts were still impacted by congestion and bottlenecks.
Maersk also says that Logistics & Services delivered 38 percent revenue growth to US$2.2bn in Q2 with more than half coming from the top Ocean customers. It predicts the division “will continue its strong growth pattern for the rest of the year”.
Overall, the company expects earnings in Q3 are expected to exceed the level for Q2, 2021. “Trading conditions for the quarters ahead are, however, still subject to a higher-than-normal volatility due to the temporary nature of current demand patterns, disruptions in the supply chains and equipment shortages.”
Skou said: “We continue to build a higher quality Ocean business with more long-term contracts, a rapidly growing logistics business, and a value creating terminals business.”