News / Maersk overhauls logistics and forwarding after profit slump

Photo: AP Moller-Maersk

Despite an 8% growth in volumes in the final quarter of last year, Maersk today reported a $153m Q4 EBIT loss for its ocean shipping line as declining freight rates – down 23% year on year – drove it into loss-making territory.

In the same period last year, its shipping operations booked a $1.4bn profit, and the company said in response it was looking to save $180m a year through a headcount reduction “across headquarters, regions, and countries”.

It said: “Out of approximately 6,000 corporate positions, around 15%, approximately 1,000 positions, will be closed. The required notification and consultation processes have been initiated.”

For full-year 2025, AP Møller-Maersk reported group revenue of $54bn, marginally down from 2024’s $55.5bn, with group EBITDA of $9.5bn, down from $12.1bn, and an EBIT of $3.5bn, compared with $6.5bn in 2024.

It said its full-year volumes grew by 4.9% over the course of 2025, 0.3 percentage points above the CTS global average, and it was currently forecasting volume growth across all trades of 2% to 4% this year.

Meanwhile, APM Terminals was again the star of the group: its full year-year revenue grew 20% over 2024, and EBIT was up 31% in the same period, “propelled by Gemini volumes at key gateways”.

The fourth quarter cemented this performance, with volumes at APMT facilities up 8.4% year on year, due to growth in Europe, North America, and Latin America, and revenues up 13%, to $1.4bn.

However, for freight forwarders, perhaps the more important news was that the group’s heavily criticised “integrator of logistics” concept appears to have been replaced with a more pragmatic approach to forwarding and logistics services.

It announced it would be reorganising these operations into three new business lines – Landside, Forwarding, and Solutions – and dispensing with the previous split of Managed by Maersk, Fulfilled by Maersk, and Transported by Maersk, which constantly confused customers and financial analysts alike.

Landside will focus on inland transportation, drayage in and out of terminals, and ground freight in North America around expedited LTL road transport; managing container depots; and customs services.

Forwarding will comprise air freight forwarding; ocean freight less-than-container loads (LCL); project cargo logistics; and insurance.

Solutions will handle supply chain management; e-commerce; and warehousing and distribution.

Maersk added that its head of Logistics & Services, Narin Phol, had been named head of Solutions, while Christoph Hemmann, current global head of Air Product & LCL, had been appointed head of Forwarding.

“These organisational changes will take effect on 1 April and will be reported externally for the first time in the second quarter, reporting later this year in August,” said CEO Vincent Clerc.

“We will provide, at that time, year-to-date and year-on-year figures, according to the new segmentation, to help you for comparability purposes,” he told analysts during the earnings call today.

For the latest quarter, Managed by Maersk was hit by the US tariffs and saw revenue decline 9%, to $532m; while Fulfilled by Maersk revenue was up 1.5%, to $1.5bn, and Transported by Maersk income saw a 5.6% increase, to $1.9bn.

“We know where we have fallen short in logistics and services, with an EBIT margin still below the 6% target we laid out, and modest revenue growth because of challenged products, primarily in middle mile and warehousing,” added Mr Clerc.

“Our priority in 2026 is to continue to improve where we have fallen short.”