Maersk, a global barometer for trade, posts record 2022 earnings but warns of a tough year ahead

Maersk, 1 of the world's largest instrumentality shipping firms, connected Wednesday reported a autumn successful fourth-quarter net but posted the champion full-year effect successful its history.

The Danish giant, wide seen arsenic a barometer for planetary trade, said its net earlier interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) reached $6.5 cardinal successful the 4th quarter, beneath a Refinitiv statement expert forecast of $6.77 cardinal and down from $8 cardinal for the aforesaid 4th of 2021.

This took the full-year underlying EBITDA fig to $36.84 billion, fractionally beneath the company's guardant guidance of $37 cardinal but its strongest-ever full-year result.

Maersk experienced an "exceptional" twelvemonth successful 2022 connected the backmost of a continued emergence successful water freight rates, but flagged successful its record-breaking third-quarter net report that these rates had peaked and a normalization would negatively interaction earnings, with erstwhile CEO Søren Skou informing of "dark clouds connected the horizon."

New CEO Vincent Clerc, who took the reins astatine the opening of this year, said successful a connection Wednesday that 2022 had been "remarkable successful much than 1 way."

"While we study the champion fiscal effect successful the past of the company, we person besides taken the partnerships with our customers to a caller level by supporting their proviso chains extremity to extremity during highly disruptive times," Clerc said.

"As we participate a twelvemonth with challenging macro-outlook and caller types of uncertainties for our customers, we are determined to velocity up our concern translation and summation our operational excellence to prehend the unsocial opportunities successful beforehand of us."

Global instrumentality marketplace to turn betwixt -2.5% and +0.5% successful 2023

Fourth-quarter loaded volumes fell 14% connected the twelvemonth portion loaded freight rates decreased by 3.5% connected the year, starring revenues to autumn somewhat to $17.8 cardinal for the quarter.

Maersk besides took a deed of $511 cardinal implicit the people of the twelvemonth from efforts to upwind down its operations successful Russia, with the eventual purpose of exiting the state entirely.

The institution reported an accrued escaped currency travel of $6.5 cardinal successful the 4th fourth of 2022 versus the erstwhile twelvemonth and issued a $685 cardinal stock buyback.

Maersk raised its dividend to 4,300 Danish krone ($620.33) per stock from 2,500 DKK per share.

For 2023, Maersk expects underlying EBITDA to plummet to betwixt $8 cardinal and $11 billion.

It said the guidance was based connected the "expectation that inventory correction volition beryllium implicit by the extremity of H1 starring to a much balanced request environment, that 2023 planetary GDP maturation remains muted, and that the planetary water instrumentality marketplace volition turn successful a scope of -2.5% to +0.5%."