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Maersk Line back in black, but energy units drag group into loss

THE world's biggest shipping conglomerate, AP Moller-Maersk Group, posted a second quarter net loss of US$264 million, drawn on revenues of $9.6 billion, which increased 8.3 per cent year on year.

But the group's principal holding, the container carrier Maersk Line, reported a second quarter profit of $339 million compared to a $151 million loss in the second quarter of 2016, drawn on this year's quarterly revenues of $6.1 billion, up 20.5 per cent.

Maersk port operator APM Terminals made a second quarter net loss of $100 million, declining from 2016's year on year quarterly profit of $112 million. This year's APMT's second quarter revenue declined seven per cent year on year to $989 million.

Maersk's forwarding arm Damco profit fell from $10 million to $0, while second quarter revenues fell 1.9 per cent to $631 million.

Overall Maersk's transport and logistics business quarterly profits were up more than fourfold to $247 million, drawn on revenues of $7.6 billion, up 14.6 per cent year on year.

But it was a mixed quarter for Maersk's energy businesses, with overall profits sinking from a $221 million a second quarter gain in 2016 to a $276 million net loss this year, drawn on revenues of $1.97 billion, a fall of 9.1 per cent year on year.

Yet Maersk Oil quarterly profits increased 45.8 per cent to $191 million, drawn on revenues of $1.38 billion, which increased 7.04 per cent, but most everything else was seriously down.

Regarding containers, freight rate increased 22 per cent year on year to $2,086 per FEU helping revenues to grow 21 per cent to $6.1 billion for the quarter.

Maersk volume grew two per cent year on year to 2.7 million TEU, an intentional outcome according to Maersk Group CEO Soren Skou,. who said the corporate focus was on profitability and not market share.

Mr Skou also addressed the cyber attack Maersk faced in late June as a result of the global NotPetya virus. Maersk estimates the financial damage of the attack to be in the range of $200 million to $300 million and that it lost 70,000 TEU worth of volume over the two weeks following the attack.

Maersk said APMT negotiated 18 new volume agreements globally in the first half of 2017, and lost five at the same time. Mr Skou said the positive impact of these new deals will show in the second half results.