Will Maersk weather the storm?
A.P. Moeller-Maersk showed a better performance in this year's first quarter than expected. Nevertheless, the Danish container shipping company warned of a 20-25% decrease in volumes in the second quarter.
Maersk posted a USD 197 million net profit in the first three months of the year, in contrast to the USD 659 million loss in Q1/2019. At the time, a negative one-time effect of USD 552 million from discontinued operations contributed to the red figures.
In Q1/2020, revenues rose by 0.3% to USD 9.57 billion, ebitda amounted to USD 1.52 billion, exceeding Maersk's forecast of USD 1.4 billion.
The Danish shipping company more than compensated its 3.2% drop in freight volume with a rise of average freight rates by a total of 5.7% compared to 2019. (mw)