In issue 758 of the Sea-Intelligence Sunday Spotlight, we analysed the 2025 FY financial and operational performance of the major global container shipping lines. The data indicates that the industry has achieved a soft landing rather than a catastrophic crash, with the reporting carriers recording a combined USD 15.4bn EBIT for 2025. While this represents a significant cooling from the USD 35.4bn operating profit seen in 2024 – and remains a fraction of the 2021 2022 peaks – profitability remains comfortably above pre pandemic levels.
Despite the sharp Y/Y downturn, all reporting shipping lines managed to record positive 2025 EBIT figures. COSCO led the pack with 2025 FY EBIT at USD 4.93bn, followed by Evergreen (USD 2.36bn), OOCL (USD 1.54bn), and Maersk (USD 1.39bn). Conversely, ONE and Yang Ming recorded the smallest operating profits at USD 459M and USD 472M, respectively. (....)