The container shipping industry has been hit by the worst crisis in its 54-year history, Maersk said on Wednesday reporting a 1.02 billion dollars net loss for 2009. In its container business - centred on Maersk Line, the world's largest container line - the Maersk group suffered from a 2.09 billion dollars net loss in 2009, the Financial Times reported on March 4.

However, a renewal of optimism arose in the container sector after a surge in volumes in the early weeks of this year (see GM related news). The company believed 2010 would be a year of "reasonable growth" in demand for container shipping, but that the 7-10% growth in world ship capacity would outpace the 3-5% growth in demand. Nor were there real signs of a pick-up in demand in Europe and North America.

There remain problems with a world oversupply of container ships - said Nils Andersen, Maersk’s chief executive - following the binge of ordering during the sector's 2001 to 2008 boom. The oversupply and collapsing earnings have pushed many lines into major losses. Due to this risk of over-supply, Maersk stresses a risk of poor pricing (see GM related news). The company's shares fell 3.45% after the results.

Maersk’s recent results illustrate the downside of being such a powerful force in world shipping: Maersk Line actually emerged the biggest loser as the 2009 loss compared with a 3.46 billion dollars net profit for 2008 and was struck on revenue down 21% to 48.5 billion dollars. The division made a 583 million dollars profit for 2008.

The key figures are for the container shipping division, which still accounts for 40 per cent of turnover, in spite of recent decline relative to other divisions. The line saw volumes carried drop only 1 per cent against a market decline of 13 per cent, but average revenue per container fall 28 per cent.

At first glance, the figure looks like a justification of some rivals' claims that Maersk has used its unique financial stability to gain market share by cutting prices. But while Mr Andersen accepts the company decided at the start of 2009 that it could not afford to lose market share, he insists it has taken business for other reasons, by improving its share of business within the prolific Asian market for instance.

The key to recovery is likely to lie in containers, Mr Andersen argued. Maersk's container operations actually lost less per container than any main rival during 2009.