News / 'Challenging and unpredictable' Q2 fails to put a dampener on bullish Zim

A strong opening quarter kept Zim’s first-half performance up, despite a difficult Q2 with ebit, revenues, and volumes all dropping.

Against the backdrop of an increasingly muted market, the Israeli carrier’s total Q2 volumes were 895,000 teu, a drop of 6% year on year, prompting a 15% revenue dip, to $1.64bn, pushing ebit off a cliff, down 69% year on year, to $149m.

CEO Eli Glickman said: “In this highly uncertain market environment, our focus is controlling what we can, to position Zim for sustainable and profitable long-term growth.”

Despite the difficult second quarter, during which many in the market concluded that 2025 would pass without a peak, its strong first-quarter (+28% revenues and +178% ebit) left the carrier with a 4% bounce in first-half revenues, to $3.6bn.

Seemingly buoyed by the H1 numbers, Mr Glickman said: “Given our performance to date, we have increased the midpoints of our 2025 guidance. We now expect full-year adjusted ebit of between $550m and $950m.

“We intend to draw on our transformed fleet and improved cost structure to continue to create long-term value for our shareholders, even in the face of challenging and unpredictable market dynamics.”

Difficulties over the second quarter have become something of a theme for the container shipping sector this year, in no small part due to the uncertainty in the global economy.

However, as an Israeli carrier, Zim has found itself more exposed than others to geo-political tensions, being among entities designated as ‘explicit targets’ by the Yemen-based Houthi militia.

Speaking to The Loadstar during Q1, Mr Glickman noted news that the US had, at that time, reached an agreement with the Houthis that potentially could see carriers resume Suez Canal transits.

But those The Loadstar spoke with said were such an agreement to facilitate a mass return, Zim’s status as a continuing target could heap additional pressures on it as it tried to make the longer Cape of Good Hope detour attractive to customers.

However, the intervening months have seen the Houthis step back from an apparent de-escalation, with few carriers, beyond CMA CGM, seemingly willing to sail through Suez.