The situation in the world’s largest ports continues to be in place. A record number of ships are waiting to be unloaded, there are not enough containers, and captains are forced to choose alternative routes to avoid congested ports.
Despite growing problems, large shipping companies have never made such a large profit.
In fact, a pandemic is a two-sided coin for the industry. On the one hand, complex logistics have increased the cost of transportation.
At the same time, demand for goods is record high, and traders are running out of stock. However, companies desperate to sell their products are willing to pay much higher prices to be able to transport it, writes the website Quartz.
Maersk, the largest shipping company, expects its profits to grow by 215-240% this year compared to pre-crisis levels.
Another market leader, Hapag-Lloyd, predicts even greater profit growth before taxes and depreciation. The company expects a record growth of 815 to 1025% in 2021 compared to 2019.
As a result, analysts expect that this will lead to two things – a significant increase in dividends for shareholders of these companies and market consolidation.
The second largest company on the market, NYK line, has already announced plans to increase dividends per share by 1650% compared to 2019.
As for the expected agreements, there are no large-scale ones yet. The reason is that the market is also consolidated – by 2019, the 10 largest shipping companies controlled 82% of the market.