Shipping giant Maersk calculated the cost of withdrawing from Russia and suffered a loss of more than $700 million in the first quarter due to the Russian-Ukrainian crisis.
Maersk said in its first-quarter report on Wednesday that its exit from Russia cost it $718 million in first-quarter earnings before interest and taxes. Maersk, which controls about one-sixth of the world's container trade, has stopped taking new freight orders to Russia and sold its stake in Russian ports. Maersk said on Wednesday it completed its last cargo operation at a Russian port on May 2.
Maersk said it had written down a $627 million loss related to Russia, while operating costs had increased by $91 million, including 20,000 containers stranded in Russia and written off GPI assets, for a total loss of more than $700 million.
Maersk said it had found a potential buyer for its assets in Russia and would exit Russia after the final shipment of the cargo this week.
Due to the outbreak of the Russian-Ukrainian war, Maersk decided to divest Russian assets and will sell its 30.75% stake in Russian container terminal operator Global Ports Investments (GPI). Maersk said it was in talks with several potential buyers and did not expect to have to give up the stake.
In 2012, APM Terminals, part of the Maersk Group, invested $900 million in London-listed Global Ports. The latter operates six container terminals in Russia and two in Finland. The other two major shareholders are Rosatom, the Russian state atomic energy company, and Russian businessman Sergey Shiskarev.
Furthermore, in addition to the investment in Global Ports, Maersk's investment in Russia also involves ownership of the warehouse and tugboat business, which is held through subsidiary Svitzer. It is reported that Maersk intends to sell four tugboats used to service the oil and LNG project Sakhalin-II.
According to the International Ship Network, Sealand Maersk Asia has been committed to developing the route between China and the Russian Far East for more than 10 years. The basic ports of the Russian Far East are fully covered, and the total cargo throughput of seaports is the largest in Russia. Since the end of 2019, Sealand Maersk Asia has opened the Russian sea-rail intermodal service, providing customers with a variety of service options, effectively shortening the freight time, and reducing the potential risks faced by the overall supply chain. Various transportation between China and Russia It occupies a unique niche in the model. The products of this sea-rail intermodal transport are transported to Vostochny by sea, and then transported to Moscow and Yekaterinburg by rail.
Maersk recently reported better-than-expected first-quarter results and raised its full-year financial forecast as strained supply chains pushed up freight rates. Maersk said at the time that global container demand would fall by 1% or rise by 1% this year as bottlenecks limit trade flows. The company reiterated that forecast on Wednesday.
Maersk said in a statement that the company worked hard during the quarter to alleviate the ongoing bottleneck caused by the epidemic, but the turmoil and uncertainty caused by the conflict in Russia and Ukraine further exacerbated the bottleneck.
Maersk CEO Soren Skou said in an interview with foreign media that the company's Russian assets are now zero. "We will not come back until Russia plays a good and constructive role in the world again," Soren Skou said.
