Zim continues in the black as its container shipping peers struggle

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After a painful debt restructure in July last year, Israeli carrier Zim has produced its second consecutive quarter of profit, posting a net return of $23m to add to the $11m profit in Q1.

The strategy of the ‘new Zim’ of seizing business opportunities appears to be working and in the past six months it has concentrated its efforts on the more lucrative Asia to US east coast market, where it also achieved top marks for schedule reliability in May and June. Zim’s bottom line has also been significantly improved by its withdrawal from the Asia-North Europe tradelane, on which currently most of the incumbent carriers are hemorrhaging money – the consequence of continuing to book containers at sub-economic rates.