On Thursday local time, Danish shipping giant Maersk released preliminary results for the second quarter. The report showed that despite global geopolitical turbulence in Q2, Maersk’s operating profit still outperformed expectations.
Maersk executives stated that in Q2 this year, shipping demand remained strong in most regions worldwide—except for the United States.
Maersk’s Strong Q2 Performance
As a global shipping leader, Maersk’s performance is widely regarded as a barometer of global trade. The company’s preliminary report revealed that its underlying earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) for Q2 were $2.3 billion, up approximately 7% from $2.14 billion in the same period last year and exceeding analysts’ expectations of $1.97 billion surveyed by LSEG.
Maersk also raised its full-year financial guidance for 2025, stating that this year’s underlying EBITDA is expected to be between $8 billion and $9.5 billion, higher than the previous forecast of $6 billion to $9 billion.
The company projected that global container market volumes would grow by 2% to 4%, up from the earlier forecast of -1% to 4%, indicating more resilient demand in markets worldwide (excluding North America).
The company stated: “Currently, supply disruptions in the Red Sea are expected to persist throughout the year.”
Maersk reported that Q2 revenue rose nearly 3% year-on-year to $13.1 billion. CEO Vincent Clerc noted that the company continues to see container demand far exceeding expectations.
“This was largely driven by the boom in Chinese manufacturing and strong export growth almost everywhere in the world except the U.S. during the quarter. In fact, tariff fluctuations in the U.S. have had some dampening effect (on shipping demand),” Clerc said.
“But overall, outside the U.S., we see sustained, very strong demand, which has driven the earnings and updated forecasts we are able to deliver today.”
It is worth noting that as Maersk released its latest earnings report, the global shipping industry was preparing for a new era of trade complexity, with U.S. President Trump announcing higher tariffs of 10% to 50% on dozens of trading partners.
Currently, major trading partners such as the UK, Japan, and South Korea have secured agreements for lower tariffs than those announced in early April. The EU reached a framework deal to reduce tariffs on most EU goods to 15%.
Other countries have been hit harder by Trump’s trade war. The U.S. imposed tariffs of 50%, 39%, 35%, and 25% on goods from Brazil, Switzerland, Canada, and India, respectively. Additionally, Trump levied an extra 25% tariff on India, citing its acceptance of Russian crude oil as justification.
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