Danish shipping giant A.P. Moller-Maersk books solid first-quarter 2025 results with EBIT rising to $1.3bn from $177m a year ago and a revenue growth of 7.8%. Maersk maintains its financial guidance for the full year 2025 despite the increased uncertainty leading to a more cautious container volume growth outlook. The company issued a forecast for the container trade sector mentioning that the outlook for the global container demand over the remainder of the year remains “highly uncertain shaped by a rapidly evolving trade policy landscape and increasing recession risks in the US.”
The company said the global container market volume growth has been revised to -1% to 4% given the increased macroeconomic and geopolitical uncertainty. Maersk now expects to grow in line with the market, whilst the disruption in the Red Sea is expected to continue throughout the rest of the year.
As it is reported, growth is expected to remain positive in the second quarter particularly if shippers capitalise on the 90-day pause of reciprocal tariffs by frontloading shipments and building inventories.
“In the latter part of the year, there is, on the one hand, a growing risk that demand could contract, and on the other the possibility that trade rebounds if tariffs are rolled back,” the company said.
Despite the ongoing geopolitical turmoil and an increase in trade policy uncertainty, demand for container trade increased in Q1 2025, according to Maersk’s report. Global container demand is estimated to have grown between 3.5% and 5.5% year-on year, broadly in line with expectations.
Import growth was strongest in Latin America, North America and Europe. On the supply side, growth remained elevated in Q1 2025 driven by significant deliveries. At the end of the quarter, the nominal fleet was 9.4% larger than at the same time in 2024, while inactive capacity remained subdued at a level not seen since early 2022.
Maersk’s results showed significant improvement year-over-year with consolidated revenue of $13.3bn ($12.4bn), EBITDA of $2.7bn ($1.6bn) and EBIT of $1.3bn ($177m), primarily driven by Ocean with strong contributions from Logistics & Services and Terminals, resulting in an EBITDA margin of 20.3% (12.9%) and an EBIT margin of 9.4% (1.4%).
Vincent Clerc, CEO of Maersk, commented: “We delivered strong results compared to the same quarter last year, driven by momentum in our operational efficiency and a global economy in good shape for the first three months. With trade tensions flaring up and uncertainty on the rise, global supply chains are once again in the spotlight.”
