Moller-Maersk Group On the Right Track Says CEO

Danish shipper and oil group A.P. Moller-Maersk expects to do better this year than last despite a 2 percent drop in Q2 2012 earnings.

Extracts from the interim financial report for the 2nd quarter 2012:

“We deliver a fairly satisfactory result for the second quarter, and we are on the right track. Container rates have been improved, Maersk Line is back in black figures and our other core growth businesses are executing well on strategy. We can still improve and will continue our strong focus on profitability to deliver a satisfactory full-year result. We also maintain our investments in long-term growth, not least in developing our many oil discoveries towards production,” says Group CEO Nils S. Andersen.

Maersk Line’s profit for the period was USD 227m (loss of USD 95m). Maersk Line’s volumes increased by 11% to 2.2m FFE and the average freight rate increased by 4.2% to 3,014 USD/FFE. Maersk Line implemented further rate increases on most trades during the quarter backed by capacity reduction. A 10% increase in the bunker price was partly offset by an 8% reduction in bunker consumption per FFE.

Maersk Oil’s profit for the period was USD 468m (USD 694m). The result was negatively affected by a 17% decline in share of production to 287,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boepd) compared to 346,000 boepd in Q2 2011.

APM Terminals’ profit for the period was USD 160m (USD 162m). Throughput increased by 7% and by 5% on a like-for-like basis to 9.1m teu (8.4m teu).

Maersk Drilling’s profit for the period was USD 101m (USD 99m). The result was positively impacted by reversal of impairments of USD 30m and negatively impacted by two rigs requiring extensive maintenance and upgrade before start-up of operations. As a consequence of the required maintenance rig operational uptime declined to 86% (97%).