The boom experienced with the pandemic, when demand for consumer goods skyrocketed and supply chain interruptions catapulted the price of maritime transport, is over for Maersk. The Danish giant that moves one in every six containers sees revenues and profits fall sharply, and does not foresee things improving in the short term.
The new reality forces us to tighten our belts. Maersk has announced a plan to cut at least 10,000 jobs due to the drop in demand, 9% of the workforce. It will also review dividend payments or investments. Measures that serve as a thermometer for doubts about global growth and the slowdown in trade.
The CEO, Vincent Clerc, has pointed out that the next two or three years the environment will be "very moderate" and with several fronts of pressure. Container trade will fall by 0.5%-2% this year, slightly better than the 1%-4% expected previously. The bulk of the cut, 6,500 positions, has already occurred. The casualty plan will report savings of about 600 million dollars, about 565 million euros. The workforce will be around 100,000 people.
The best example of the change in panorama is in the accounts presented this Friday. Profit drops almost 65%, from 1,453 to 521 million dollars, about 490 million euros. Revenues have fallen 47%, to 12.1 billion dollars, about 11.4 billion euros. The gross profit (ebitda) was 1.9 billion dollars, about 1.8 billion euros, when a year ago it was 10.9 billion.
Everything that had driven activity today has evaporated. "Our sector faces a new normal, with moderate demand, prices that return to historical levels and inflationary pressure on our cost base," Clerc summarized in a statement. Today there is excess capacity that has caused a drop in prices. Companies prefer to get rid of their inventory rather than buy more merchandise and move it around the world.
The company expects a full-year operating profit at the low end of its range and will also review dividend distribution and capital spending. On the stock market, its shares fell more than 10%.
