Shipping lines recorded a combined EBIT loss of US$1.44 billion in the fourth quarter of 2023, according to Sea-Intelligence data.

The Danish maritime data analysis firm said Maersk registered a loss of US$920 million, followed by Hapag-Lloyd (US$252 million), Ocean Network Express (US$248 million), Yang Ming (US$109 million), ZIM (US$54 million), and Wan Hai (US$41 million) — all recording EBIT losses in Q4.

"Comparing across the same set of shipping lines (minus ONE due to a lack of historical reference points and including Evergreen and HMM, both of whom had operating profits in 2023-Q4), this was the highest combined Q4 EBIT loss in 2012-2023, with the previous highest of US$455M recorded in Q4 2015," Sea-Intelligence said.

To see profitability (or the lack thereof) per TEU shipped, the report noted that Figure 1 shows the EBIT/TEU for 2010-2023 and shows the unprecedented levels of the 2021-2022 pandemic period, whereas Figure 2 cuts off the y-axis at +/- US$300/TEU to show the developments in 2023. 

 [Source: Sea-Intelligence]

[Source: Sea-Intelligence]

"So far, we have EBIT/TEU data for 5 shipping lines, with COSCO missing from those that regularly report on both their EBIT and global volumes," it said.

Sea-Intelligence added that Maersk's EBIT/TEU of -US$148/TEU is their largest negative EBIT/TEU in the analysed period.

For Hapag-Lloyd, their EBIT/TEU loss of -US$84/TEU is smaller than their only other negative EBIT/TEU of -US$239/TEU in Q4 2014.

Meanwhile, for ONE, their negative Q4 2023 EBIT/TEU of -US$80/TEU is their first. HMM, on the other hand, recorded a positive EBIT/TEU of US$34/TEU during the period.