Wednesday, August 17, 2011
Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News
by Lennart Simonsson, dpa, Berlin
Higher oil prices and more freight volumes lifted Danish shipping and oil group Moller-Maersk's six-month net profit to 2.7 billion dollars, the group said Wednesday.
The net profit was up 8 percent on the first half of 2010, the conglomerate said.
Turnover, measured in dollars, rose 9 percent year-on-year to 29.9 billion dollars.
The group that operates Maersk Line, the world's biggest container shipper, said it expected global demand for seaborne containers to grow by 6 to 8 percent in 2011.
In the short term, it said freight prices were not expected to rise due to addition of new tonnage, especially on routes between Asia and Europe. Higher oil prices could also weigh on profit.
The group repeated its earlier statement that it expected full-year results to be lower than in 2010.
The group's total fleet counted 621 container vessels at the end of the six-month period, of which 376 were chartered.
AP Moller-Maersk Group operations include sea transport, offshore oil and gas activities and retail and shipyard operations.
Year-on-year the oil price was 44 percent higher but production decreased 11 percent, mainly as a result of a lower production share in Qatar and lower output in the Danish and British section of the North Sea, the group said.
During the January-June period the group was also involved in exploration in Angola, Brazil, Denmark, Norway, Qatar, Britain and the United States. Exploration costs almost doubled to 355 million dollars.
Copyright (c) 2011, dpa, Berlin
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