Maersk Product Tankers divested from its tanker fleet in a year 2021 that saw major losses. Conversely, Maersk Tankers books a positive bottom line. The companies expect to see an improved market in 2022.
Maersk Product Tankers, headed by Christian Ingerslev, sold off tankers in 2021, which ended with red bottom-line figures. | Photo: Maersk Tankers
Maersk Product Tankers sold off from its fleet in a miserable year 2021 for product tanker carriers, which also ended with red bottom-line figures for the Danish shipping company.
Overall, 2021 was a poor year for product tanker, in which markets along the way achieved ”historically low levels,” Maersk Product Tankers writes in the beginning of its financial report.
This also affected the carrier, whose revenue declined by around USD 230m to USD 433m, while its bottom line went into the red with a full-year net loss of USD 46m. Operations (EBIT), too, ended with a deficit of USD 9m, a significant decline from the USD 197.8m profit of the preceding year.
Maersk Product Tankers expects to see better results in 2022, although both Covid and the Ukraine war remain large uncertainty factors.
The combination of a moderate market uplight and continued delivery of sold vessels is expected to contribute to a neutral net result in 2022
Maersk Product Tankers
”We initially expect tanker markets and TCE to remain subdued and comparable to 2021 levels, but subsequently an uplift of between 10 percent and 15 percent could materialize with an increase in global oil supply and slowing of inventory drawdowns,” reads the financial report of Maersk Product Tankers.
”The combination of a moderate market uplight and continued delivery of sold vessels is expected to contribute to a neutral net result in 2022.”
Chief Executive Christian Ingerslev said in an interview with WPO earlier this year that Maersk Product Tankers did not expect 2022 to be ”an amazing year.”
”2022 looks set to be better, with a positive operating result, but I don’t think it will be an amazing year. Covid is still going to have an impact on the market,” Ingerslev said back in January.
However, there are signs that product tanker carriers have recently seen rates go up once more.
Wednesday, Norden upgraded its guidance for 2022 and indicated a recently strengthened product tanker market as a significant cause.
Sold 15 ships in 2021
The report states that Maersk Product Tankers has also spent the past year thinning out its tanker fleet, selling 15 of its vessels, three of which were newbuilds.
”Through these transactions, we reduced our fleet in response to an uncertain market environment and were supported by robust asset values,” the report reads.
Maersk Product Tankers, owned by A.P. Møller Holding and Japan’s Mitsui & Co., is the continued tanker carrier division of its parent group with ownership of 61 vessels.
Since November last year, its fleet has been under technical management with Synergy Group, which took over Maersk Tankers’ technical management business.
Maersk Tankers books profit
The separate company Maersk Tankers is now a service firm performing commercial management of product tankers.
Unlike the carrier division, the company managed to secure black bottom-line figures in 2021, according to its financial report, made public via the Danish Central Business Register.
Maersk Product Tankers and Maersk Tankers
Maersk Tankers books a profit of USD 33.6m – an improvement upon USD 23.7m in 2020 – which to a significant degree may be ascribed to the divestment of the company’s technical management business to Synergy. Moreover, the ownership of digital venture Zeronorth was last year transferred to A.P. Møller Holding.
While the bottom line advanced, the top line declined, ending at USD 466m against USD 530m the year before.
”In 2022, we expect markets to improve and growth in vessels under management. Due to the positive impact of the transfer of the ownership of Zeronorth and the takeover of the technical management business by Synergy Group in 2021, we expect a lower result in 2022,” writes Maersk Tankers in its financial report.
English edit: Jonas Sahl Hollænder
