Maersk Line continued to grow its profitability in the third quarter reporting a $685m net profit.
The world’s largest container line saw a $131m increase in net profit for the third compared to $554m a year earlier, and for the first nine months of 2014 net profit stands at $1.69bn. Maersk now expects a full year profit above $2bn, having originally forecast $1.5bn for the year as a whole.
The line reported revenues of $7.1bn for the quarter up 4.3% on the same quarter a year earlier.
Maersk said the improvement was driven by lower units costs from operational cost savings and an increase in average box rates.
The unit cost per feu decreased by 0.9% to $2,597.
Meanwhile the average freight rate increased 0.9% to $2,679 per feu. Volumes were up 3.7% at 2.4m teu.
Maersk took deliver of three 18,000 teu vessels during in Q3 and scrapped on vessel. It has eight triple-E vessels totaling 144,000 teu in capacity to be delivered in 2014 – 2015.
Looking at the market the company commented: “The global market showed moderate growth of above 3% in Q3 2014 compared to Q3 2013, slightly lower than demand growth during the first half of 2014. Global demand is currently being led by advanced economies while imports to emerging countries are slowing down.”
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