SHIPPING line Maersk has delivered record earnings for 2021, which was an exceptional year with focus on mitigating supply chain risks for customers while strengthening the integrated logistics offering.

In 2021, revenue was up 55% to US$61.8 billion, EBITDA tripled to US$24 billion and free cashflow was US$16.5 billion, allowing the company to make strategic long-term investments into decarbonisation and logistics growth, combined with strong cash distribution to shareholders.

Søren Skou, CEO of Maersk said, “Exceptional market conditions led to record-high growth and profitability in A.P. Moller – Maersk, however it also led to supply chain disruptions and severe challenges for our customers.

“We spent tremendous efforts in mitigating bottlenecks by expanding capacity across ocean, improving productivity in terminals and growing our global logistics footprint. We will continue these efforts as we see the current market situation persist into Q2.

“At the same time, we see conversations with customers change from procurement-led freight rate discussions to more holistic conversations on how we truly partner to keep supply chains running end-to-end. This clearly validates our strategy,” he said.

Within the ocean sector, profitability increased substantially with a revenue of US$48.2 billion in 2021, compared to US$29.2 billion previous year, driven by high freight rates due to the ongoing impact from the pandemic that has resulted in disruptions of global supply chains. To increase predictability and reliability, capacity was increased both for equipment and vessels, and significant effort was made to prioritise contracted volumes, with long-term contracts now representing 65%, up from 50% a year ago.

Maersk’s forecast for the full year 2022 in the ocean sector is growth in line with global container demand, which is expected to grow 2-4% in 2022, subject to uncertainties related to the current congestion, network disruptions and demand patterns.

The company continued to strengthen its logistics and services business throughout 2021, with a revenue increase of 41% to US$9.8 billion, where 62% of the 34% organic growth came from cross selling to its “top 200” ocean customers.

During the year, six businesses were acquired within air, e-commerce, warehousing and fulfillment, and 85 new warehouses opened, improving capabilities and footprint across the product portfolio.

In the terminals sector, profitability continued to grow in 2021 driven by strong volumes performance and storage income. With a focus on increased efficiency, utilisation and improving quality through digitisation and automation, return on invested capital increased to 10.9%, which is above the target of minimum 9%.

During the year, the use of digital solutions and services grew significantly, with turnover on Maersk.com reaching US$38 billion. Traffic increased 15% as customers continued to adopt digital solutions even further. Also, bookings via mobile app increased more than 15-fold.

“As Maersk has significantly improved the financial performance and progressed on the strategic journey to become an end-to-end logistics company, we have also been able to increase returns to our shareholders. For 2021, the proposed dividend amounts to a truly exceptional DKK 47 billion,” Mr Skou said.

Maersk expects the current market situation to continue into Q2 2022 with a normalisation to occur early in the second half of the year. Based on these assumptions, Maersk expects for full year 2022:

  • Underlying EBITDA of around US$24 billion;
  • Underlying EBIT of around US$19 billion; and
  • Free cash flow (FCF) of above US$15 billion.