Shipping group Maersk beat first-quarter profit forecasts on Thursday but warned that the Iran war had pushed its fuel costs up by around $500 million a month, adding that the energy crisis would persist even if a peace deal were reached.
Shares in Maersk fell 6.5% at 1100 GMT after the results, underperforming a broadly flat Copenhagen benchmark index amid concerns that high fuel prices could erode profits.
Maersk chief executive Vincent Clerc said the war had added roughly 3 billion Danish crowns ($472.7 million) to the company’s monthly costs, as bunker fuel prices surged from around $600 to just under $1,000 per metric tonne.
Clerc said Maersk had so far managed to recover those costs in full through contract renegotiations and spot rate increases, but cautioned that the energy crisis showed no sign of easing.
He added that passing on higher costs to customers had been challenging, but that Maersk had managed it so far. “They can understand, even if they don’t like it, why we have to do it,” he said. “It is not something we can just absorb.”
Maersk’s earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) for the January to March period stood at $1.73 billion, above a median forecast of $1.66 billion in a poll of 10 analysts.
However, the figure was significantly lower than the $2.71 billion reported for the same period last year.
The first quarter does not capture the full impact of the Iran war on global supply chains, as it began on 28 February when the U.S. and Israel launched coordinated strikes on Iran.
The war has disrupted shipping routes after Iran closed the Strait of Hormuz to commercial traffic. The company has six ships stranded in the Gulf, a spokesperson said.
Clerc noted that only 2% to 3% of global container trade flows to and from the Gulf, giving the industry sufficient resilience to cope with the closure.
The greater risk, he said, would arise if sustained high energy prices triggered widespread inflation, leading to recession and a drop in demand. He described a scenario of high costs, weak demand and overcapacity as “a dangerous cocktail.”
The Middle East situation is also affecting shipping in the Red Sea, forcing Maersk to continue rerouting vessels around Africa, away from the Suez Canal and the Bab el-Mandeb Strait.
Maersk is currently assessing whether conditions in the Red Sea may soon be safe enough to resume some sailings through Suez, which would significantly reduce fuel costs and transit times on the critical Asia–Europe corridor, Clerc said.
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One hundred years after the First World War and more than eighty years after the devastation of the Second World War gave rise to the United Nations, humanity once again finds itself living in an age of permanent crisis.
Flights arriving at Catania airport in eastern Sicily were suspended after volcanic ash from a new eruption of Mount Etna drifted into the airspace around the airport, disrupting operations at one of Italy’s busiest aviation hubs.
For months, efforts to secure the Red Sea have focused on what is happening in the water. Naval deployments have increased, governments have expanded maritime cooperation and shipping companies have adapted to persistent security threats.
Greenland has issued a “strong warning” to a U.S. oil company linked to President Donald Trump after drilling equipment was brought ashore without the required government approvals, according to British media.
Iran said it was nearing a final pact with Oman defining new shipping lanes between them through the Strait of Hormuz but repeated that the U.S. must meet other conditions.
North Korea has deployed troops, weapons and now, according to a Ukrainian intelligence official, a missile unit to support Russia's war against Ukraine, marking Pyongyang's most significant involvement in a war since the 1950s.
U.S. President Donald Trump has called for Iran to pay compensation for decades of deaths and damage, adding a new demand to peace talks as Tehran seeks compensation and sanctions relief before reopening the Strait of Hormuz.
A criminal court in Damascus has sentenced former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to death in absentia for premeditated murder, torture, arbitrary detention and crimes against humanity, according to Syria’s state news agency SANA.
Russia’s state nuclear corporation Rosatom plans to increase its workforce at Iran’s Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant to 100 specialists by the autumn, depending on the security situation and progress toward a halt in hostilities between Washington and Tehran.
U.S. President Donald Trump has warned FIFA against replacing its president, Gianni Infantino, as the football governing body faces mounting pressure over a failed proposal to sell an interest in the World Cup to private equity investors.
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