Lower Volumes of Shipping Predicted

As the Ukraine war continues, lower volumes of shipping have been predicted due to the softening demand in the global ocean freight sector.

The DP World reported, in its recent update, mixed third quarter results. A 2.1% increase in gross container volumes was posted, while also warning of a near-term market decline. 

“We report another robust set of throughput figures, which is once again ahead of industry growth forecast of 1.1%. As expected, the growth rates have decelerated due to the more challenging market conditions,” said Sultan Ahmed Bin Sulayem, DP World Group Chairman and CEO.

In the first half of 2022 at its peak performance, DP World saw an incredible jump of 52 percent in profit to $721 million, in comparison to the first half of 2021 when there was only $475 million made. 

A big fish in global logistics, Kuehne &Nagel, also saw the softening demand in container shipping in the third quarter. Even though their gross profit rose by seven percent to $2.7 billion (last year it was $2.5 billion in a similar period), volumes went down by five percent. K&N handled 1,135,000 TEU in the last quarter, compared with 1,193,000 last year.

DSV, a multinational logistics company, also posted a similar outlook. Their Q3 rose by 22 percent, EBIT up to 45 percent. However, sea volumes fell by about 4 percent. The CEO, Jens Andersen, predicted that there could be lower volumes of shipping in air and sea volumes in the range of 10-15 percent.

Andersen went on, “Volumes are dropping and our sales team will have to work extra hard. We don’t want to give up on volumes and we will have to be extra aggressive both to keep our volumes and take from competitors.”

 SOURCE: maritime-executive