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Maersk Line reported a profit of $ 339 million in Q2 2017, as compared to a loss of $ 151 million in the same period last year, with a positive ROIC of 6.7 per cent (negative 3 per cent). The underlying result was a profit of $ 327 million (loss of $ 139 million), highlighted a release.
Market fundamentals continued to improve in Q2 as demand growth of 4 per cent outgrew nominal supply growth of 1.4 per cent. The improvement in market fundamentals in past quarters has started to reflect in the freight rate, which increased 22 per cent compared to Q2 2016 and 7.6 per cent compared to Q1 2017. Freight rates increased by 36 per cent on East-West and 17 per cent on North-South trades.
Transported volumes increased by 1.7 per cent compared to Q2 2016. Volume grew on headhaul by 5.2 per cent, however, offset by a decrease on backhaul by 5.6 per cent as backhaul cargo was less attractive on some trades, the release pointed out.
The performance of A.P. Moller-Maersk in Q2 2017 was mainly driven by a profitable Maersk Line due to continued recovery in the container market and focus on restoration of profitability. Full-year guidance is reiterated for 2017, despite an expected negative financial impact of $ 200-300 million in Q3 from the recent cyber attack, the release disclosed.
“Maersk Line is again profitable delivering in line with guidance, with revenue growing by $ 1 billion year-on-year in the second quarter. The profit was $ 490 million higher than the same quarter last year, based on higher rates,” said Mr Søren Skou, CEO of A.P. Moller-Maersk.
Its Transport and Logistics division reported a consolidated revenue of $ 7.7 billion, which was an increase of 15 per cent compared to same quarter last year, and an underlying profit of $ 442 million, which improved significantly, in large part driven by higher container freight rates.
At the end of June, A.P. Moller-Maersk was hit by the malware “Not Petya”, with system shutdowns resulting in significant business impact, especially within the container business. Mr Søren Skou elaborates: “In the last week of the quarter, we were hit by a cyber attack, which mainly impacted Maersk Line, APM Terminals and Damco. Business volumes were negatively affected for a couple of weeks in July and, as a consequence, our Q3 results will be impacted. We expect the cyber attack will impact results negatively by $ 200-300 million.”
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