Hormuz and port congestion split container-shipping results
Maersk raised its full-year outlook as congestion lifted freight rates, while Hapag-Lloyd reported a first-half loss after Middle East conflict costs. The same shipping-network pressures produced sharply different corporate results.
Economics & Markets··Evening
Maersk lifted guidance on rates and volumes
Maersk reported second-quarter revenue of 15.8 billion dollars, up 20 per cent, and operating profit of 1.6 billion dollars, rising from 845 million dollars a year earlier. Ocean volumes grew 4.1 per cent and the average loaded freight rate rose 22 per cent. The company raised its full-year outlook for the second time this year, lifting underlying EBITDA to a range of 10.5 billion to 12.5 billion dollars from 8 billion to 10 billion dollars and underlying operating profit to 4.5 billion to 6.5 billion dollars from 2 billion to 4 billion dollars. Chief executive Vincent Clerc said strong, broad-based demand from the Far East since 2024 has left trade flows significantly more unbalanced, with volumes challenging landside infrastructure capacity. Port and landside congestion therefore sit behind both higher freight rates and the stronger profit ranges. The result shows demand and network congestion together lifting Maersk's quarterly profit and its full-year bands.[1]
Hormuz costs turned Hapag-Lloyd's first half red
Hapag-Lloyd reported group EBITDA of 829 million dollars in the second quarter, slightly above a year earlier. The first half closed with a group loss of 173 million dollars against a profit of 775 million dollars in 2025, and the company put the second-quarter cost burden from the Middle East conflict at about 600 million dollars. Liner Shipping revenue reached 5.7 billion dollars on transport volume of 3.5 million TEU, with the average freight rate up 9 per cent year on year to 1,475 dollars per TEU. Segment EBIT fell to 153 million dollars. Terminal and infrastructure revenue rose to 191 million dollars. The full-year outlook raised on 13 July is unchanged, with group EBITDA seen at 2.7 billion to 3.7 billion dollars. Even as freight rates and volumes recovered, conflict-related extra costs pushed the half-year result into a loss. The second quarter showed operational recovery, yet the six-month figure quantifies how a geopolitical shock on the route network can erode profitability.[2]
The same network pressure, two different books
Both carriers carried strain on the container route network into their books, but the results pulled in opposite directions. At Maersk, port and landside congestion lifted the average loaded freight rate 22 per cent, operating profit reached 1.6 billion dollars and the full-year underlying EBITDA range moved to 10.5 billion to 12.5 billion dollars. At Hapag-Lloyd, the average rate still rose 9 per cent per TEU, yet a second-quarter Middle East conflict cost burden of about 600 million dollars turned the first half into a 173 million dollar group loss. On one side, unbalanced trade flows and infrastructure congestion pushed revenue and profit expectations higher; on the other, conflict costs around Hormuz eroded profitability. The shared ground is that ocean shipping remains exposed to geopolitical and logistics shocks; the split comes from whether those shocks show up mainly as higher rates and volumes or as higher costs. The two same-day releases show that network pressure does not produce a single corporate outcome: the cost and freight channels companies face can pull the books in different directions.[1], [2]
