The Maersk shipping group, which is widely regarded as a barometer of global trade, raised its full-year profit forecast on Thursday as a result of strong global demand for container shipping. In the second quarter, Maersk reported a stronger operating profit and higher-than-expected revenue, despite significant geopolitical uncertainty.
Maersk reported preliminary underlying earnings (EBITDA) of $2.3 billion for the quarter, an increase of approximately 7 percent compared with the same period last year. The full-year 2025 forecast was raised from the previous range of $6–9 billion in EBITDA to $8–9.5 billion in EBITDA.
The company forecasts growth in the global container market of between 2 and 4 percent for the year, as a decline in U.S. imports is offset by strong import flows in other regions, including Europe. Maersk reports that revenue increased by nearly 3 percent compared to the previous year, reaching $13.1 billion in the second quarter. In an interview with U.S. network CNBC, Maersk CEO Vincent Clerc said that the company continues to see container demand that is well above expectations.
– Much of this is driven by a manufacturing boom in China and strong export growth virtually everywhere in the world except in the U.S., where tariffs had a somewhat dampening effect during the second quarter.
Chinese shipments to Europe and other regions began to increase last year and continued into 2025, Vincent Clerc noted, adding that Maersk’s own data does not suggest that this growth is driven by U.S. tariffs.
“The normal relationship between economic performance in the U.S. and the rest of the world is changing as China plays an increasingly important role in the global economy,” Clerc said during a press conference in Copenhagen.
