The Danish shipping company said it was reducing its expected result for 2015 to $3.4bn from $4bn, which it forecast in its second quarter results. It makes about half its profit from running the Maersk Line.
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The company’s shares opened more than 7 percent lower and traded 7.4 percent down at 9,700 kroner as of 9:04 a.m.in Copenhagen.
Nordea Bank AB said the profit warning was not unexpected, but bigger than estimated, according to a note published by senior equity specialist Jesper Grandjean Bamberger.
Fewer containers were carried than expected, with average freight rates 19 per cent lower than during the same period a year ago.
Routes between Asia and Europe have been particularly weak, with Bloomberg Intelligence explaining that the World Container Index had hit a record low for a third consecutive week, with two of the eight biggest world trade lanes at all-time lows.
Maersk said none of its other units – which include an oil explorer, a drilling division and a port operator – are changing their full-year forecasts.
The Group’s preliminary result for Q3 is Dollars 778 mill. with an underlying result of USD 662 mill. “‘We also see no balance sheet risk given low leverage”.
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The Group’s sensitivity guidance for the last six months of 2015 states that a general decline in the freight rate of $100 per FFE (Forty Foot Equivalent) will impact Maersk Line’s result negatively by around $ 0.5 billion, and that a volume reduction of 100,000 FFE will have a negative impact of around $ 0.1 billion. The price is below the company’s previous 52-week low of DKK9,815 and significantly below the 52-week high of DKK16,450.
