Maersk CEO Vincent Clerc is urging a major infrastructure investment push to fix landside bottlenecks at ports, rail, and trucking hubs, arguing the industry must “catch up on 15 years of under-investment” even as the carrier posted forecast-beating results.
Clerc told the Financial Times that after years of strong growth from the Far East, congestion is now emerging on the landside, at terminals, on rail, and with trucks and barges, rather than at sea. He attributed the shift to underinvestment in trade infrastructure since the financial crisis, warning that a “catch-up cycle” on infrastructure spending is needed and that ports across Europe, Brazil, and Africa should expect more frequent volatility as a result.
The comments came alongside Maersk’s second-quarter results, which showed revenue up 20% to $15.8 billion and operating profit nearly doubling to $1.6 billion; well ahead of analyst expectations of roughly $700 million. On the back of the results, Maersk raised its full-year profit guidance to $4.5 billion to $6.5 billion. Clerc said about a third of Maersk’s traffic has returned to the Red Sea and Suez Canal after years of rerouting around southern Africa due to Houthi attacks, though he called a potential Strait of Hormuz reopening only “a small positive” for global trade overall.
IAM Member Impact: Members should treat Clerc’s warning as a signal that current landside bottlenecks, particularly at inland terminals, rail, and trucking chokepoints in Europe, Brazil, and Africa, are structural rather than temporary, and consider building extra buffer time into transit estimates for these corridors.
Source: Financial Times