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SEA-INTEL: MAJOR OCEAN CARRIERS PROFITABILITY AROUND US$60B IN 2024
March 19, 2025

Major ocean carriers experienced a significant drop in profitability last year, yet the figure remains well above the pre-Covid years.

 

According to a new report from Sea-Intelligence, the major shipping lines (that report on – and have so far published – their financial figures) have recorded a combined 2024-FY EBIT of US$ 27.3 billion.

 

In comparison, the combined EDIT for 2021 and 2022 across the same shipping line was nearly US$200 billion.

 
"That said, the 2024 level of profitability is still significantly higher than the pre-Covid years. In fact, the EBIT recorded in 2024-FY is higher than the combined EBIT of 2019, 2020, and 2023," said Alan Murphy, CEO, Sea-Intelligence.
 
The Danish maritime data analysis firm noted that given that the shipping lines covered do not make up the entirety of the market—notable absentees include MSC (privately held), PIL (which rarely publishes financial accounts), and CMA CGM (which no longer publicly publishes EBIT)—Sea-Intelligence can estimate the total market profitability by extending the average profitability of the lines that have indeed disclosed their earnings to the market as a whole, based on operated capacity.
 
"Clearly this is an approximation, but using this approach implies total industry profitability at the EBIT level of US$60 billion in 2024," the Sea-Intelligence report said.

 Self Photos / Files - ddf4c3b9e3dd464c86ca02c3906b1f7c.png

 [Figure 1 shows the EBIT/TEU of the shipping lines that report on both their EBIT and global volumes on an annual basis. Source: Sea-Intelligence]

 

Sea-Intelligence noted that although Maersk’s 192 EBIT/TEU is significantly lower than in 2021-2022, it is still higher than most of the pre-pandemic years. For ZIM (US$674/TEU), HMM (US$622/TEU), Hapag-Lloyd (US$215/TEU), and OOCL (US$346/TEU), it is the highest in the last decade outside of 2021-2022.

 

Meanwhile, for ONE line (US$300/TEU), Sea-Intelligence said it does not have a pre-pandemic reference point.

 
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