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Maersk expects Red Sea disruption throughout 2025

By Pramod Kumar
A Maersk container vessel in the Suez Canal in 2021. The company says it will return to the route when the safety of seafarers is guaranteed Reuters/Amr Abdallah Dalsh
A Maersk container vessel in the Suez Canal in 2021. The company says it will return to the route when the safety of seafarers is guaranteed
  • US said to halt bombing Houthis
  • Maersk revenue up 8%
  • Impacted by declining freight rates

Danish shipping major Maersk expects the disruption in the Red Sea to continue throughout the rest of 2025.

This week President Donald Trump said that the US will halt bombing the Houthis in Yemen after it agreed to stop attacking shipping lanes in the Middle East.

Under the agreement, neither the US nor the Houthis would target the other, including US vessels in the Red Sea and Bab Al-Mandab Strait, Reuters reported, quoting an Omani government statement.

In July 2024, Maersk CEO Vincent Clerc said that the company would only return to sailing via the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden when the safety of seafarers, vessels and cargo is guaranteed.

He said ships could almost immediately return to sailing their usual routes through the Suez Canal once a resolution is found.

Maersk has revised global container market volume growth to between -1 percent to 4 percent due to increased macroeconomic and geopolitical uncertainty.

Revenue grew 8 percent to more than $13 billion in the first quarter of 2025.

The ocean business segment’s result was impacted by the declining freight rates during the quarter and the continued network re-routing south of the Cape of Good Hope, as the Red Sea passage was still deemed unsafe.

The company expects earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation of between $6 billion and $9 billion despite global uncertainties.

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