Maersk Line made a profit of US$1.30 billion in 2015, a year-on-year drop of approximately 44.3%.

Revenue was also 13.2% down compared to 2014.

According to Maersk, the decrease was driven by low freight rates due to savings in bunker prices and to deteriorating market conditions.

The shipping line said that it had accelerated network rationalization and cost-reduction programmes and reduced capacity by cancelling four services and making network adjustments.

At the end of 2015, Maersk Line’s idle capacity stood at 32,733 TEUs.

Nils Andersen, CEO of the Maersk Group, said that he was satisfied with the overall performance of the various businesses of the whole group.

“Despite the very challenging market conditions in our industries, all business units delivered positive underlying profits and the Maersk Group achieved an underlying result of US$3.1 billion,” said Andersen. “Given our expectation that the oil price will remain at a low level for a longer period, we have impaired the value of a number of Maersk Oil’s assets by US$2.6 billion after tax. We will continue to strengthen the group’s position through strong operational performance and growth investments.”

For 2016, the carrier is expecting an underlying profit which is “significantly below” that of 2015 because of the low freight rates and a growth in global demand of just 1-3%, according to a statement.