The Danish shipping company “AB Moller-Maersk” has cut its forecast for global trade, saying that there are no significant indications that the volume of container trade in the world will recover during the current year.
The company, which is based in the Danish capital, Copenhagen, said yesterday that the global container trade traffic could contract during the current year by 4%, while previous expectations indicated a contraction of 2.5%.
Maersk said that the trend of companies to rely on inventories has been monitored since the last quarter of last year, and it will continue until the end of this year.
“Overall, the container trade and logistics environment remains challenging. There is currently no indication of a significant increase in freight volumes during the second half of the year,” she added.
This comes at a time when Maersk announced higher-than-expected profits during the second fourth quarter of this year, while increasing its expectations for profits for the current year.
The company said its earnings before tax, interest and depreciation fell during the second quarter to $2.91 billion.
Maersk said it expected operating profits during the current year as a whole between 9.5 billion and 11 billion dollars, while previous expectations ranged between 8 and 11 billion dollars.
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