The major carriers have reported a combined 2024-Q3 EBIT of USD 17.06bn, which is a 600% increase Y/Y – the Y/Y increase is discounting ZIM who reported a one-time non-cash impairment loss of USD ‑2.06bn in 2023-Q3; including this figure would over-inflate Y/Y growth for 2024-Q3. This is on the back of a USD 6.12bn EBIT in 2024-Q2.

Of these 9 reporting carriers, 8 have reported EBIT of over USD 1bn, of which 3 have reported EBIT of over USD 2bn. COSCO had the highest 2024-Q3 EBIT of USD 4.71bn. Even with the highest EBIT, COSCO did not have the highest EBIT/TEU as they also grew their global volumes by 10.8%. Their EBIT/TEU of 716 USD/TEU was surpassed by ZIM’s EBIT/TEU of 1,273 USD/TEU. COSCO was followed by ONE (567 USD/TEU), and Maersk (446 USD/TEU).

Given these results, it seems as though the market is in a conflicted state. While this is clearly not pandemic level profitability, it is also higher than any “normal” Q3. It seems as if the current supply chain disruptions have jolted the market enough to drive up freight rates, increase volumes (only partially on Asia-Europe), and substantially increase carrier profitability to a level not seen across the pre-pandemic decade, but not enough to increase these figures to the highs seen during 2021-2022.

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 All quotes can be attributed to: Alan Murphy, CEO, Sea-Intelligence.
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