AFTER two very profitable years for the shipping lines, the market is shifting into a post-pandemic normality.

Statistics from Sea-Intelligence showed that while 2022-Q4 gave us a first glimpse into what this might look like, 2023-Q1 was the first quarter where the carriers' operating profits took a real hit. This continued into 2023-Q2, with the combined EBIT dropping by 90 per cent year on year to a little over US$3 billion.

Further to that, both ZIM and Wan Hai once again recorded an operating loss. While ZIM has had profitability issues in past Q2's, this was a first for Wan Hai in 2012-2023.

None of these shipping lines were able to sustain their EBIT/TEU figures in 2023, with the largest 2023-Q2 EBIT/TEU recorded by OOCL of $305/TEU. In contrast, the smallest EBIT/TEU in 2022-Q2 was $1,377/TEU.

Maersk ($207/TEU), Hapag-Lloyd ($298/TEU), and ONE ($137/TEU) all recorded EBIT/TEU within a much narrower range of $130-300/TEU. In all of this, ZIM recorded a negative EBIT/TEU of $-195/TEU. Basically, they lost $195 for every TEU that they moved in 2023-Q2.

Alan Murphy, CEO, Sea-Intelligence, said: "A large reason for the decline in profitability is the decrease in the freight rates, which dropped by 48 per cent to 67 per cent across the shipping lines that publish these figures.

"Another reason is the decline in transported volumes. What is surprising however is that ZIM, one of the only two shipping lines to record an EBIT loss, grew their volumes 0.5 per cent globally, and by roughly 13 per cent on both Transpacific and Asia-Europe."