Maersk sees Q2 profits bump and launches Maersk Flow
Company triples net profit as it reaps rewards from diversified business lines and streamlining capacity
Despite a slump in global trade and container volumes, A.P. Moeller-Maersk’s results remained buoyant in Q2 2020. The company reported profits prior to interest, tax, devaluation and amortisation of $1.7 billion in the period, up 25% on Q2 2019, which translated to a tripling of its net profit to $427 million.
This comes against a backdrop of tricky conditions, including a slump in trade and container volumes. Maersk reported that its container volumes fell by 15.8%, which is just below estimated falls in trade volumes from the WTO. The WTO expects an 18-19% decline in merchandise trade in the second quarter of this year compared to the same period last year.
With this fall, came a 20.6% fall in earnings from ocean transportation and an overall decline in revenue.
Maersk therefore achieved its margins from cost-cutting measures, bolstering rates through cutting capacity and robustness in some of its other business areas. The company reported strong growth in its logistics and services division and stability in its terminals and towage revenues.
Maersk Flow
One of its new products that it will be hoping to help these alternative revenues is the newly-launched Maersk Flow.
Maersk Flow is a digital platform that it hopes will improve transparency in supply-chain processes by allowing booking across carriers and automatic transmission of e-forms to all major carriers, as well as other document sharing.
A web-based solution, Maersk says Flow is carrier-neutral, and it is aimed at small and medium-sized businesses.
The solution also provides data analytics of past orders and shipments and measurement of performance against standard key performance indicators.