AP Møller-Maersk has warned of rising financial dangers together with potential stagflation and Chinese language manufacturing unit closures even because the world’s largest container transport group by income reported a report quarter.
Maersk’s chief government Søren Skou stated the present second quarter was creating very a lot consistent with the primary three months, which introduced the very best income within the Danish group’s 114-year historical past.
However he added: “We’re assuming a slowdown within the second half, a normalisation. The visibility is kind of low. Primarily we see dangers increase within the economic system, in China with the Covid-19 coverage, the place they use these very onerous lockdowns, some downgrades as a result of a really excessive oil value.”
Maersk, which transports multiple in each six containers over the seas and is taken into account a worldwide commerce bellwether, last week downgraded its progress forecast within the transport trade this yr to a possible small fall.
It additionally upgraded its revenue forecast for this yr to $24bn of underlying working revenue, up from its February estimate of $19bn. Skou pressured the brand new steering was based mostly on a “sharp decline” in freight charges within the second half so “now we have fairly some capacity to climate a little bit of a storm”.
Maersk’s chief government famous that the warning clouds have been gathering for the second half of this yr as he pointed to some economists forecasting a recession within the US across the finish of the yr. He stated it was “too early” to inform if that was more likely to occur.
“We clearly see inflation, and I don’t assume it’s non permanent,” he added.
“There are fairly plenty of components that counsel we’ll see much less progress within the second half and into subsequent yr,” he stated, pointing to declining client and enterprise confidence in Europe and the US in addition to declining Chinese language export orders.
Maersk was affected by damaging volumes as a result of a “mind-blowing” sixth week of lockdowns in Shanghai, though it had not but been dramatic, Skou stated. However he added: “What everybody fears is that you just get an enormous unfold of Omicron that forces China to close factories. We don’t see it but.”
His feedback got here as Maersk reported revenues up 55 per cent within the first quarter to $19.3bn, whereas internet revenue greater than doubled to $6.8bn.
Skou stated regulators across the globe had investigated the container transport trade however concluded that top income have been merely down to produce and demand dynamics, though he anticipated extra such probes sooner or later.
Maersk’s report outcomes got here regardless of working losses of $718mn from the fallout of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, together with the Danish group forsaking 20,000 containers in Russia and exiting operations in logistics and port terminals. It accomplished its final cargo operation in a Russian port on Monday, Maersk added.
Maersk was persevering with its share buyback programme and would within the “long run” make extra acquisitions to construct up its rising logistics enterprise, however within the quick time period wanted to digest a sequence of latest purchases, Skou stated.
He added that he didn’t “see a lot potential to hurry up the greening” of Maersk’s ships, the place it’s already the trade chief, however is stepping up purchases of electrical vehicles.
