News Highlights week: 31 - 2023

Taking container shipping activities alone, results were also worse in Q2 than Q1. Revenues fell by 50% on a year-on-year basis to just USD 8.4 bn, while shipping EBITDA fell 75% to USD 2.2 bn. 
Low freight rates accounted for nearly all of the decline: CMA CGM logged higher volumes in Q2 than Q1 and at 5.6 Mteu, also maintained volumes on a year-on-year basis. However, average rates fell to USD 1,491 per teu, down from USD 1,767 in Q1 and USD 2,850 a year ago. 

Echoing fellow carrier ONE, CMA CGM underlined poor conditions on the East West trades, but remarked that volumes remained buoyant on the North South lines. CMA CGM’s larger spread of trades, with less than 50% on the East West routes, enabled it to perform relatively better than ONE which also reported results this week. 
Elsewhere, the French carrier highlighted a rebound in liftings in Q2, but said macroeconomic forecasts for the second half of 2023 indicated sluggish global growth, and warned new capacity arriving on the market was likely to weigh on freight rates, particularly East West.
Profits fall 90% for Ocean Network Express 
Japanese-owned carrier Ocean Network Express (ONE) recorded a steep slide in profits in the second quarter of the year, generating net income of just USD 513 M for the period. 
Although the Singapore-based carrier managed to increase liftings compared to the first quarter of the year (up 9% quarter-on-quarter to 2.8 Mteu), rates continued their steep downward path and its bottom line was punished by ONE’s high exposure to the East West trades. 
The carrier recorded average earnings per teu of just USD 1,333 per teu in April-June, versus USD 1,788 in January-March, and USD 3,068 a year earlier. Meanwhile, cargo movements from Asia to North America in April-June were down 18% year-on-year. 

ONE operates one of the highest fleet proportions on the East West trades, at 70% of its fleet, exceeded only by HMM and Evergreen. 
While vessel costs increased in the quarter due to a reduction in congestion and fewer blank sailings, this was offset by lower bunker and variable (mainly storage) costs. Without these two improvements, quarterly profits would have been even smaller. 
Overall, ONE reported revenue of USD 3.76 bn for the quarter, and operating profits (EBIT) of USD 386 M. The latter represented a 93% decline on a year earlier, or a drop of more than USD 5 bn. The carrier’s EBIT margin fell to just 10.3%. 
Presenting the results, ONE highlighted stagnant demand on the East West routes, combined with greater capacity supply due to the drop in port congestion. 
It emphasised freight levels were short-term, although the line refrained from giving a forecast for the full-year, saying further shifts in the market were expected.