Maersk Books Record Profit On Surging Freight Demand

Mohammad Ali (@ChaudhryMAli88) Published May 05, 2021 | 02:30 PM

Copenhagen, May 5 (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 5th May, 2021 ) :Danish shipping giant AP Moller-Maersk said Wednesday that it booked record earnings in the first quarter on the back of surging demand during the coronavirus pandemic.

For the first three months of the year, the world's biggest freight company posted net profit of $2.7 billion (2.3 billion Euros).

That is almost as much as the group made in the full-year 2020 and a 13-fold increase over the figure for the first quarter of 2020, Maersk said in a statement.

Sales, which were already announced at the end of April when the group raised its 2021 full-year targets, rose by 30 percent to $12.

4 billion.

"Strong demand led to bottlenecks, as well as lack of capacity and equipment, which drove up freight rates to record high levels," said chief executive Soren Skou.

Maersk said it would launch a new $5-billion share buy-back programme over the next two years.

As a result of the pandemic, demand for shipping has surged since mid-2020 and especially since the end of the year, in particular from Asia to the US and Europe.