Maersk Profit Gains as Container Volumes Grow While Costs Fall

Nov. 11 (Bloomberg) — A.P. Moeller-Maersk A/S, operator of the world’s biggest container line, said third-quarter profit increased as it cut costs and boosted box volumes.

Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization advanced 2.8 percent to $3.20 billion, Copenhagen- based Maersk said today in a statement today.

Maersk Line, which moves almost one-sixth of the world’s containers, lifted volumes 3.7 percent as freight rates rose 0.9 percent, with unit costs falling by the same degree. The unit, battling industry overcapacity after a boom in ship orders coincided with the global slump, predicted a full-year profit higher than $2 billion, versus the previous forecast for one “significantly above” the $1.5 billion earned last year.

“I am very, very satisfied,” Group Chief Executive Officer Nils Smedegaard Andersen said in a posting on the company’s website. “We’ve seen an improvement with the result in a situation where rates have been under pressure and the oil price has been down compared to last year.”

With Brent crude futures priced below $82 a barrel this week, down from almost $122 in June, Maersk’s oil-drilling unit saw earnings fall 4.6 percent to $915 million, outweighing the benefit of lower bunker fuel prices at the shipping line.

Container volumes are likely to rise by between 3 percent and 5 percent for the full year, compared with an earlier forecast of between 4 percent and 5 percent.

Maersk reiterated that group earnings will total $4.5 billion this year, excluding discontinued operations, impairment losses and divestment gains. Third-quarter profit was in line with the $3.22 billion estimate of six analysts surveyed by Bloomberg News.

A.P. Moeller-Maersk stock has risen 13 percent this year, compared with a 6.6 percent decline in the 25-member Bloomberg Europe Transportation Index.

To contact the reporter on this story: Richard Weiss in Frankfurt at [e-mail] To contact the editors responsible for this story: Benedikt Kammel at [e-mail] Christopher Jasper