Shipping costs ‘unsustainably low’, warns Maersk CEO

Maersk’s chief executive said freight rates had fallen significantly since the ‘good years’ that followed the Covid pandemic. Photo: Getty

Terje Solsvik

The global container shipping market faces overcapacity in the coming years and the rates paid by customers have fallen to an unsustainable level, Maersk CEO Vincent Clerc told the group’s annual meeting of shareholders yesterday.

Maersk last month warned that container shipping overcapacity would hit profits this year, in contrast to the ­record earnings achieved in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic.