Shipowners earned windfall revenues last year on the back of disruptions caused by Houthi attacks on vessels in the Red Sea. Container shipping giant Maersk, a bellwether for global shipping, originally guided that it would at best break even for 2024. But the company ended the year with $6.8bn in pre-tax earnings, up 56% year-on-year “reflecting the progressively strong container demand following the situation in the Red Sea beginning in late 2023.”
Disruptions similarly boosted the rates tanker shipowners could charge, buoying their profits (MEES, 15 November 2024). After the initial shock of Houthi attacks and ship diversions passed new supply chains crystalized. In the second half of the year rates did slip back with very-large crude carrier (VLCC) and smaller product tanker rates from the Middle East ending the year roughly 50% and 60% lower than their respective peaks at the beginning of 2024 (see charts). But shipowners still managed to accrue strong revenues and profits, even if not all firms broke the records reached in 2022 and 2023 (see table). (CONTINUED - 851 WORDS)
