Maersk: Global container crisis will end in a few months

Maerskone of the biggest players in global trade, estimated that the disruption to supply chains rattling economies could subside in a few months, easing concerns about a longer period of shipping chaos that has contributed to fueling inflation.

In a report collected by Bloomberg, the Danish group AP Moller-Maersk A/S specified that the delays in maritime transport that have persisted during most of the COVID-19 pandemic will begin to ease in the second half of 2022.

“Such a change will ease pressure on container capacity, but will mean less revenue for the Danish shipping giant from the spot market, where freight rates on the busiest routes remain up to 10 times higher than 2019 levels.” refers.

Soren Skou, chief executive of Maersk, said he expects “a pretty strong first half of 2022,” before reaching a normalization stage early in the second half.

This viewpoint adds a ray of optimism in an industry bogged down by labor shortages, port congestion, and COVID-19-related disruptions.

The outlook also hinges on a big unknown: whether household demand for goods — high during the pandemic — will hold up when the virus subsides and spending on services returns to normal.

Maersk: still on top

Maersk, which handles nearly a fifth of global ocean container traffic, said it sees a 2%-4% expansion in the market this year, with a strong first half followed by an uncertain outlook from there. At the moment, his actions are going from strength to strength.

“We try to guide the best possible, without being optimistic or pessimistic. We don’t have a lot of visibility into what’s going to happen when people go back to work, when the bottlenecks are opened and a lot of the idled capacity is released today in Los Angeles and Long Beach; how is that going to work. We’ll have to see it,” admitted Soku.

Skou said Maersk expects to have around 70% of its maritime business booked on long-term contracts with fixed rates. This leaves 30% exposed to the spot market, where prices are down from all-time highs but remain well above pre-pandemic levels.

“At some point it will go down, and in our forecasts we think it will go down early in the second half,” Skou said.