Shipping company Maersk to slash 10,000 jobs, citing the difficult container trade environment

COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — Maersk, the world’s biggest shipping company, said Friday that it plans to eliminate 10,000 jobs due to what it described as a challenging environment for container trade and logistics services.

The company said the move would result in savings of $600 million in 2024.

The announcement was made as Copenhagen-based Maersk presented its quarterly report, which listed profits before taxes at $691 million, down from $9.1 billion for the same period last year. The report cited “challenging market conditions resulting in substantially lower freight rates compared to the abnormally high rates in 2022.”

A.P. Moller-Maersk CEO Vincent Clerc said the company will continue to streamline its organization and operations.

”Our industry is facing a new normal with subdued demand, prices back in line with historical levels and inflationary pressure on our cost base,” Clerc said. “Given the challenging times ahead, we accelerated several cost- and cash- containment measures to safeguard our financial performance.”

The company's revenue for Q3 was $12.1 billion in 2023 compared to $22.8 billion for the same period in 2022.

The company said it now expected annual global container volume growth in the range of -2% to -0.5% compared to -4% to -1% previously.