Profit Explosion in logistics

It continues to rain record profits in logistics for the first quarter of the early financial year 2021. The Danish container giant Maersk saw its bottom line result increase by a factor of 13 to 2.7 billion dollars, almost the same as the total annual profit of 2020. DP too -DHL (fourfold increase) and XPO (fivefold increase) join the top earners in logistics this week due to the corona crisis.

Maersk’s resounding quarterly figures come as no surprise. The Danish giant recently doubled its profit forecast for this year to $ 10 billion.

The profit explosion is due to the sharply increased demand for container transport in combination with, among other things, regional container shortages, which are limiting adequate capacity.

According to Maersk, 8% more containers were transported in the first quarter of this year than last year. The shipping company says that the growth is mainly due to public support packages connected with the corona pandemic, in combination with social lock-downs.

“These have led to a significant increase in demand for consumer goods,” Maersk said. CEO Søren Skou speaks of “a solid performance” in the Ocean, Logistics and Terminals divisions.

“Strong demand led to bottlenecks and a lack of capacity and equipment, driving freight rates to record highs.”

For example, the transport of a 40-foot Maersk yielded an average of $ 2,662, 35% more than a year ago. Rates were on the rise in all sailing areas but increased most in transport from China to North America.