How Maersk Dominates the Global Shipping Industry

The global container business is in chaos. Surging consumer demand, covid outbreaks and a shortage of containers has led to higher volume for ocean carriers and congestion at ports.

Maersk, the world’s largest container shipper, has seen record profits. The Danish shipping firm whose customers include Walmart and Nike announced May 2021 first-quarter revenue of $12.4 billion, a 30% increase from a year earlier. Maersk has a fleet of over 700 ships and handles one in every five containers shipped by sea. The company also owns terminals around the world and has a growing land-based logistics business. On average a Maersk container ship calls on a port somewhere around the globe every six minutes. Like its competitors the company has faced a series of obstacles in the first half of 2021 ranging from the worldwide shortage of shipping containers to the blockage of the Suez Canal.

So, with vaccine rollouts in place in the U.S. and consumer discretionary spending shifting towards services will Maersk and its rivals be able to maintain their momentum? And what do bottlenecks at ports and higher freight rates mean for U.S. consumers? Watch the video to find out what's next for Maersk.

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How Maersk Dominates the Global Shipping Industry

[frankkreyssig]

Of course they’re going to make record profits when the price of shipping a 20 foot container goes from $1800 to $18, 000 in the matter of six months.

[victoriancu]

Truly is amazing that its still cheaper to make a product 6000 miles away and have it traverse a vast ocean braving high winds and waves just to make it to your front door. You could have the US factory right next door to the customer and they still can't compete.

[xpkareem]

David is straight from central casting when you request a "Longshoreman type".

[BLWard-htqw]

Don't know why I've always found transportation logistics fascinating, not to mention shipping ports. Their operations just seems like something I could watch all day, trying to figure out how things move about.

[DanielPearson]

"We're moving a lot of empty containers from this terminal, so a lot of choice New Jersey air is being sent away from here to other locations" Underrated hilarious joke.

[benheal]

I didn’t know Steve-O worked as a longshoreman

[cesarz]

Taking a Loaded container with scrap paper to Jakarta = $2500
Taking an empty container to China = $7000
no need to be a rocket science to guess what the shipping line is going to choose to do...
taka a vessel loaded with empty containers... creating chaos at the terminal levels...
if you don't work in the industry... you wouldn't know.

[brentmarrillo]

I'm proud to be part of Maersk as an officer in their vessels

[christinegloriene]

Maersk work is commendable. Salute to the people who work on this company. Even during the pandemic Maersk is striving!

[dertythegrower]

Very cool report,
well done report here, whoever is the Maersk reporter, props.

[jaredspencer]

Early in the pandemic, shipping slowed and the price of scrap steel rose, leading to many functional ships being scrapped for the money. I wonder what impact this had on the current shipping shortage.

[curtisclark]

Shipping is the backbone of all society right now, sea or land. As a healthcare worker, we couldn't do it without EVERY person involved.

[jamssnana]

My daughter and two granddaughters are moving from Louisiana to Virginia Thursday. She and my husband have put her entire household AND her car into a 20’ sea can, sealed it up, loaded it into his trailer, hitched it to his enormous truck, weighed it, and are good to go. It's amazing what these things can hold.
This one is a rental, but when prices come down, we will be getting a bigger one to store some "preparations" in.

[lzh]

Here in Singapore we learnt in Secondary 4/5 (equivalent to 10th grade) in public schools that Maersk moved from our ports to that of _Tg Pelepas_ in neighbouring Malaysia because it was cheaper & allowed more flexible operations. But then I later also learnt that they later moved back to Singapore in 2017 as it was more efficient

[listocastillo]

As a kid I always saw Maersk containers on the road. The emblem always held a place in my herat

[gawkthimm]

funny thing is Mærsk is Danish and here in Denmark we have strong labor unions and with the various EU regulatory workers rights, etc. so at home Mærsk is much more fair to its workers than outside the EU..

[mountainman]

The Danes English accent are very distinct. If you've lived there, then you can immediately spot it.

[FinancialShinanigan]

I live across the APM Terminal and these ships are massive and definitely see a bump in activities.

[kirillkhizhnyak]

Big respect to everyone working there.

[justmeangelasee]

Maersk has always been the best!! I loved working for this company!