In the fourth quarter of 2023, Sea-Intelligence reports that shipping companies incurred a combined EBIT loss of $1.44 billion 📉

In its latest report, Sea Intelligence highlighted significant EBIT losses incurred by major carriers during the fourth quarter of 2023:

Maersk faced a substantial loss of -$920 million, while Hapag-Lloyd reported a deficit of -$252 million.

Similarly, ONE experienced losses amounting to -$248 million, Yang Ming recorded -$109 million in losses, and ZIM and Wan Hai incurred losses of -$54 million and -$41 million respectively.

In an analysis across a selected cohort of shipping companies (with ONE omitted due to a dearth of past data, but encompassing Evergreen and HMM, both of which posted operational profits in the fourth quarter of 2023), the fourth quarter of 2023 marked the most significant aggregate EBIT loss within the period spanning from 2012 to 2023. This surpasses the former peak of -$455 million documented in the fourth quarter of 2015.

In a scrutiny of profitability per TEU shipped, Figure 1 illustrates the EBIT/TEU from 2010 to 2023, highlighting the unparalleled levels during the pandemic years of 2021-2022. Meanwhile, Figure 2 truncates the y-axis at +/- 300 USD/TEU to emphasize the trends of 2023.

At present, data regarding EBIT/TEU is accessible for five shipping lines, with COSCO notably absent from the list of companies consistently revealing both EBIT and global volume statistics.

Maersk's latest financial report reveals a concerning statistic: their EBIT/TEU stands at -148 USD/TEU, marking the company's most significant negative EBIT/TEU throughout the examined timeframe.

Hapag-Lloyd's latest financial report reveals a noteworthy improvement as their EBIT/TEU loss stands at -84 USD/TEU, a stark contrast to the previous quarter's -239 USD/TEU loss recorded in 2014.

In the fourth quarter of 2023, ONE faced a notable setback with a negative EBIT/TEU of -80 USD/TEU, marking a significant occurrence for the company. Conversely, HMM's performance in the same period revealed a positive EBIT/TEU of 34 USD/TEU.

A recent update by Sea-Intelligence revealed a steep decline in revenue for all shipping lines in 2023 compared to the previous year, with a decline of between 46.6% and 62.6% , according to their report.