Shipping lines revise profit guidance ever higher as market booms
Past four years have confounded internal forecasters at public liner companies
Hapag-Lloyd has hiked the midpoint of its 2024 ebit guidance range by $1.7bn since the beginning of this year. Maersk’s midpoint is up $4.5bn, and Zim’s is up $200m. The recent pattern of repeated guidance upgrades is reminiscent of the Covid years