The container ship Gunde Maersk sits docked at the Port of Oakland on June 24, 2024 in Oakland, California.
Justin Sullivan | Getty Images
Danish shipping giant Maersk on Thursday posted stronger-than-expected second-quarter operating profit, citing continued focus on operational improvements despite unprecedented geopolitical volatility.
The company, widely considered a barometer of global trade, reported preliminary underlying earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) of $2.3 billion for the June quarter.
That’s up around 7% from $2.14 billion over the same period a year ago and above the $1.97 billion expected by analysts in an LSEG poll.
Maersk raised its full-year 2025 financial guidance, saying underlying EBITDA this year is expected to come in between $8 billion to $9.5 billion, up from previous guidance of between $6 billion to $9 billion.
It also expects global container market volume growth between 2% and 4%, up from a previous forecast of -1% and 4%, pointing to more resilient market demand outside of North America.
“At this time, the disruption in the Red Sea is still expected to last for the full year,” the company said.
Maersk said sales rose nearly 3% year-on-year to $13.1 billion in the second quarter.
Maersk CEO Vincent Clerc said the company continues to see container demand well ahead of expectations.
“A lot of it is driven by a manufacturing boom in China and strong export growth pretty much everywhere in the world except for the U.S. during this quarter, where the tariff-on, tariff-off has had some dampening effect,” Clerc told CNBC’s “Squawk Box Europe” on Thursday.
“But overall, I think outside of the United States, we see a continued very strong demand and that is fueling the earnings and the upgrade that we were able to do today,” he added.
The results come as the shipping industry prepares for a new era of trade complexity, with U.S. President Donald Trump slapping higher tariff rates of between 10% to 50% on dozens of trading partners.
The U.S. president’s sweeping new tariffs took effect Thursday, with the Trump administration seeking to reshape the global trading system in America’s favor.
Major trading partners, such as the U.K., Japan and South Korea, have secured deals to get lower tariffs than those announced in early April. The European Union has also struck a framework agreement to lower tariffs on most EU goods to 15%.
Other countries have been hit harder by Trump’s trade war. The U.S. has imposed levies of 50% on goods from Brazil, 39% on Switzerland, 35% on Canada and 25% on India.