Maersk Bunker Consumption Drops to Lowest Since Q4 2024

by Ship & Bunker News Team
Thursday May 8, 2025

Container shipping giant AP Moller-Maersk saw its quarterly bunker consumption drop to the lowest level in more than a year in the first three months of 2025.

The firm used a total of 2.702 million mt of marine fuels in Q1, down by 2.9% from the previous quarter and by 3.4% from the same period a year earlier, it said in an earnings release on Thursday. The figure was the lowest quarterly total since Q4 2024.

Maersk is one of the world's largest consumers of bunker fuel. 

This drop came before much of the current trade uncertainty driven by volatile US trade policy, meaning further declines are likely in Q2's figures.

The firm consumed 36.7 g of marine fuel per TEU per nautical mile in Q1, down from 38.4 g/TEU*NM  a year earlier, reflecting improving fuel efficiency.

Maersk spent a total of $63 million complying with the EU's emissions trading system in Q1, up from $44 million a year earlier. Shipping's inclusion in the system is gradually being phased in, meaning companies pay for 70% of their eventual compliance costs this year, up from 40% in 2024.

"Compared to Q4 2024, profitability was lower, following the downward trend of rates since the July 2024 peak, as expected, and normal volume seasonality," the company said.

"The result was impacted by the declining freight rates during the quarter and the continued network re-routing south of the Cape of Good Hope as the Red Sea passage is still deemed unsafe."

Ship & Bunker News Team
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