Market volatility impacts 2025-Q2 line profitability

In 2025-Q1, despite market uncertainty and a volatile geopolitical climate, the major shipping lines recorded a combined EBIT of USD 5.89 bn, which was only lower than the Q1 in the 2021-2023 pandemic period. Market disruptions continued in 2025-Q2, with shifting volumes and consistent downwards pressure on freight rate. As a result, the same major shipping lines recorded a combined EBIT of USD 2.73 bn in Q2. This was lower than Q2 in not only 2021-2024, but only slightly higher than in 2020. This meant that, while still profitable, 2025-Q2 was relatively less profitable than most of the recent years, as per an analysis by Sea-Intelligence. 

To show operational profitability in container shipping, it used the EBIT/TEU figure… All major shipping lines reported positive EBIT/TEU, ranging from 12 USD/TEU (ONE) to 249 USD/TEU (OOCL). There were 3 more shipping lines with an EBIT/TEU of under 100 USD/TEU: Maersk (35 USD/TEU), Hapag-Lloyd (53 USD/TEU), and COSCO (79 USD/TEU), while there were two shipping lines with an EBIT/TEU of 100-200 USD/TEU: HMM (176 USD/TEU) and ZIM (167 USD/TEU).

The 2025-Q2 financial reports also showed a divided Transpacific and Asia-Europe market. The Asia Europe trade recorded strong volume growth, with 3 of the 6 shipping lines that report on Asia-Europe volumes recording double digit Y/Y increases. Conversely, the Transpacific trade experienced widespread volume contractions, as per Sea-Intelligence. 

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