Maersk reports 55% increase in 2021 revenue to $61.8 billion

February 9, 2022: High freight rates and integration into logistics saw Danish carrier A.P.Moller-Maersk report a 55 percent in revenue to $61.8 billion in 2021, EBITDA tripled to $24 billion and free cash flow was $16.5 billion.

“Exceptional market conditions led to record-high growth and profitability in A.P.Moller-Maersk, however it also led to supply chain disruptions and severe challenges for our customers," says Søren Skou, CEO, Maersk. "We spent tremendous efforts in mitigating bottlenecks by expanding capacity across ocean, improving productivity in terminals and growing our global logistics footprint. We will continue these efforts as we see the current market situation persist into Q2. At the same time, we see conversations with customers change from procurement-led freight rate discussions to more holistic conversations on how we truly partner to keep supply chains running end-to-end. This clearly validates our strategy.” 

Logistics & services business outperformed throughout 2021, with a revenue increase of 41 percent to $9.8 billion, the statement added. "Six businesses were acquired within air, e-commerce, warehousing and fulfilment, and 85 new warehouses opened, improving capabilities and footprint across the product portfolio."

Within ocean, profitability increased substantially with a revenue of $48.2 billion compared to  $29.2 billion in the previous year, driven by high freight rates. "To increase predictability and reliability, capacity was increased both for equipment and vessels, and significant effort was made to prioritise contracted volumes with long-term contracts now representing 65 percent up from 50 percent a year ago."

Maersk is expecting the current market situation to continue into Q2FY2022 with normalisation seen early in the second half of the year. Projections for 2022 include

underlying EBITDA of around $24 billion,  underlying EBIT of around $19 billion, and 

Free cash flow of above $15 billion.