Maersk Sees Up to 2.5% Drop in Global 2023 Container Volumes

by Ship & Bunker News Team
Wednesday February 8, 2023

Container shipping and logistics firm AP Moller-Maersk expects to see a global decline of up to 2.5% in container freight volumes in 2023 after record profits in previous years.

The company saw a profit of $29.3 billion for 2022, up from $18 billion the previous year and from $2.9 billion in 2020, it said in its annual report on Wednesday. The firm handled 11.9 million FFE in total last year, down from 13.1 million FFE the previous year.

The container market has seen abnormal strength since the COVID-19 pandemic shook up global shipping markets in 2020.

But Maersk's outlook for the industry was significantly less rosy.

"2023 global GDP growth is expected to be muted and global ocean container market growth to be in a range of -2.5% to +0.5%," the company said.

This reduction in global shipped container volumes will come at the same time as significant growth in the boxship fleet, with container lines having ordered many ships in the past two years while earnings were high.