First quarter container line EBIT dropped by 81% on-year in the first quarter 2023, but still remains above pre-pandemic levels.
Gary Howard | Jun 09, 2023
Figures from Sea-Intelligence showed that while revenues decline 35-70% year-on-year in the quarter, EBIT of $7bn compared to $43.93bn in Q1 2022 and $16.28bn in Q1 2021.
“That said, it is still markedly higher than the $621m EBIT of Q1 2019. In fact, the combined EBIT drop year on year was a staggering -81.0% across the same set of carriers,” said Sea-Intelligence.
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Lines also fell short of last year’s figures on a per teu basis, with an average EBIT of $330/teu in Q1 2023 compared to $1,829 per teu in Q1 2022. Historically, EBIT per teu was just $53/teu on average for 2010-2021.
“The only silver lining, if you can even call it that, is that while Y/Y comparisons with 2022-Q1 will show a horrifying picture due to the unnaturally high numbers in that year, the reality is that the profitability of the shipping lines has increased considerably compared to the pre-pandemic levels, and looking at the current market indicators, it does not seem that the shipping lines are going to drop back down to those low levels in the short term,” said Sea-Intelligence.
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Reference: https://www.seatrade-maritime.com/containers/81-drop-first-quarter-container-line-ebit