Shipping company Maersk to slash 10,000 jobs, citing the difficult container trade environment

Maersk, the worlds biggest shipping company, said Friday that it plans to eliminate 10,000 jobs due to what it described as a challenging environment for container trade and logistics services.The company said the move would result in savings of USD 600 million in 2024.The announcement was made as Copenhagen-based Maersk presented its quarterly report, which listed profits before taxes at USD 691 million, down from USD 9.1 billion for the same period last year.

Maersk, the world's biggest shipping company, said Friday that it plans to eliminate 10,000 jobs due to what it described as a challenging environment for container trade and logistics services.

The company said the move would result in savings of USD 600 million in 2024.

The announcement was made as Copenhagen-based Maersk presented its quarterly report, which listed profits before taxes at USD 691 million, down from USD 9.1 billion for the same period last year. The report cited "challenging market conditions resulting in substantially lower freight rates compared to the abnormally high rates in 2022." AP Moller-Maersk CEO Vincent Clerc said the company will continue to streamline its organisation and operations.

"Our industry is facing a new normal with subdued demand, prices back in line with historical levels and inflationary pressure on our cost base," Clerc said. "Given the challenging times ahead, we accelerated several cost- and cash- containment measures to safeguard our financial performance." The company's revenue for Q3 was USD 12.1 billion in 2023 compared to USD 22.8 billion for the same period in 2022.

The company said it now expected annual global container volume growth in the range of -2 to -0.5 per cent compared to -4 to -1 per cent previously.