News / Container line profits this year will be wiped out by rising fuel and charter prices

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A leading shipping analyst has drastically cut its 2018 ocean carrier profitability forecast from $5bn to “breakeven at best”.

In a new research note published this morning, Drewry claims “carriers’ lack of control has come back to bite them this year”.

A surge in oil prices destroyed their profitability in the first quarter, which followed a return to the black last year with around $7bn of net profit.

This year, according to the cumulative losses of carriers that publish their results, the first-quarter deficit hit ...