Leading liner operator CMA CGM has seen profits surge and expects a further improvement later this year.
Net income for the French liner operator rose to $3.47bn in the second quarter, way up on the $136m in the same period last year.
Group revenues rose 77.2% to $12.41bn, compared with $7bn in the same period last year.
The result was driven by increased volumes and higher freight rates, according to chief executive Rodolphe Saade.
"The strong rebound of global economy has resulted in unprecedented demand for transportation and logistics services,” he said.
The Marseille-based liner operator saw container volumes rise 5.7m teu in the second quarter — an increase of 19.1% over the same period last year.
Container shipping activity was “particularly dynamic” on the transpacific, Latin America and intra-regional routes.
“While pressure on global supply chains are likely to persist, the group's strong performance enables us to accelerate our logistics transformation and our investments in industrial assets,” Saade said.
Constraints to continue next year
Constraints on container shipping capacity are expected to continue until the first half of 2022, the company reported.
“The current environment should therefore allow the group to continue to further improve its results in the second half of 2021,” it said.
CMA CGM is responding to the capacity crunch by reinforcing and upgrading it shipping network.
It expects to take delivery of 26 vessels by the end of the year.
Nine are vessels of 15,000 teu, of which six are owned and three are chartered vessels.
Another 17 ships to be delivered are secondhand vessels, of which CMA CGM is buying 32 in the current year.
Debt reduced
CMA CGM used part of its windfall profits to deleverage its balance sheet by a further $725m in the quarter.
Net debt stood at $14.9bn at the end of June, down $1.9bn since 31 December 2020.
The shipping division saw revenues rise 89.4% to $10bn in the second quarter, up from $5.28bn in the previous period. Ebitda from shipping activities increased from $1bn to $4.3bn.
CMA CGM group fleet of 542 ships carried close to 21m teu in 2020.
