Sea-Intelligence: Carrier Profitability drops sharply in 2025-Q4

In issue 759 of the Sunday Spotlight, Sea‑Intelligence analysed the 2025‑Q4 financial and operational performance of the major global container shipping lines. The reporting shipping lines recorded a combined EBIT of USD 392M in 2025‑Q4, representing a staggering collapse from the USD 7.60bn combined operating profit recorded in 2024‑Q4. This signalled not only a return to severe pre‑pandemic margin pressures but also wiped out the recovery momentum that was built throughout 2024.

None of the reporting shipping lines managed to surpass the USD 500M EBIT mark during the quarter. Evergreen reported the largest positive EBIT at USD 265M, followed by HMM at USD 220M. Crucially, several of the market’s largest shipping lines posted EBIT losses, with COSCO recording the largest EBIT loss at USD ‑343M, followed by Maersk at USD ‑153M.

Only three shipping lines managed to maintain positive unit EBIT profitability in 2025‑Q4: HMM recorded the highest EBIT/TEU at 216 USD/TEU, followed by ZIM (159 USD/TEU) and Hapag‑Lloyd (50 USD/TEU). The remaining four reporting shipping lines recorded operating losses for every container shipped. COSCO fared the worst with an EBIT/TEU of ‑47 USD/TEU, while ONE (‑26 USD/TEU), Maersk (‑23 USD/TEU), and Yang Ming (‑21 USD/TEU) all clustered closely together with negative unit profitability.

Assuming the market matches the average profitability of these reporting shipping lines, we can estimate a total global industry EBIT of roughly USD 860M for 2025‑Q4, a sharp drop from the USD 16.7bn estimated for the same quarter last year.

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