Maersk Third-Quarter Profits Rise
Maersk Line reported that its third-quarter profit rose from a year ago, and its parent company A.P. Moller-Maersk raised its full-year forecast, Bloomberg News reported.
Copenhagen, Denmark-based Maersk Line’s third-quarter net income increased to $554 million from $498 million in the same period last year, according to Bloomberg.
A.P Moller-Maersk raised its 2013 full-year guidance to $3.5 billion from $3.3 billion.
Maersk, the world’s largest shipping line, said third-quarter freight volumes increased 10.6%, rates declined 12.2% and capacity dipped 0.8%, Bloomberg reported.
Rates “deteriorated significantly during the quarter and hence the seasonally low fourth-quarter 2012 has started with low freight rates, which will result in a significantly lower fourth-quarter result,” Maersk Line said.
The shipping line, which transports close to 15% of the world’s containers, is facing overcapacity in the industry following a rise in ship orders that collided with the global financial crisis resulting in the largest slump in freight rates since the 1970s, Bloomberg reported.
