In recent months, the evolution of the geopolitical and combined with system dysfunctions maritime-port sector, has led to an increase in the demand for containerized maritime transport of which they have benefited the main shipping companies in the market, including including Denmark's Maersk and Germany's Hapag-Lloyd, which from February 2025 collaborate within the framework of their vessel sharing agreement called Gemini Cooperation ( of 17 January 2024). Announcing today the results achieved in the April-June quarter, the CEO of A.P. Møller-Mærsk, Vincent Clerc, noted that 'the The second quarter once again confirmed the new era of high volatility that we have entered. The remarkable and widespread demand from the Far East from 2024 - has explained - has generated much more unbalanced, with volumes that put a strain on the capacity of land infrastructure. From ports to inland transport, We are seeing increased congestion and disruptions in different geographical areas. Our team's capability global to seize opportunities in these difficult markets has allowed us to record significant growth in volumes and earnings across all our divisions, leading to a substantial increase in our forecasts for the full year".

In the second quarter of 2026, the Danish group's revenues, of $15.76 billion, recorded a sharp increase of +20.0% over the same period last year. The increase in turnover was contributed by the main Business segments: In the maritime transport sector containerized revenues amounted to 10.53 billion (+22.8%), of which 8.58 billion generated by shipping operations containerized (+17.8%) and 1.94 billion from related (+51.2%); in the logistics sector, revenues were equal to 4.22 billion (+15.1%) and in that of port terminals at $1.45 billion (+10.8%).

The Danish group reported a gross operating margin quarterly of €2.99 billion (+30.2%), with a contribution of €2.04 billion billion from containerized maritime transport (+41.4%), 468 billion million from logistics (+11.7%) and 517 million from terminals port (+12.9%). Group operating profit was $1.57 billion (+85.9%), with contributions from the three Business divisions of 935 million respectively (+308.3%), €217 million (+24.0%) and €458 million (-0.7%). The company closed the second quarter of 2026 with a net profit of $1.31 billion (+105.3%).

During the period, Maersk's container ships transported goods for a total volume of 3.36 million 40' containers (FEU) (+4.1%) and the average value of freight rates in the The quarter was $2,746/FEU (+21.6%). In the In addition, the volumes handled by the logistics division amounted to 27.32 million cubic metres (+4.8%) and the The group's dockers handled 3.66 million containers (+2.2%), of which 1.41 million serving the group's ships (+4.4%) and 2.26 million serving third-party vessels (+0.9%), including a total of 1.08 million containers handled in North America (+6.5%), 696 thousand containers in Latin America (-0.1%), 811 thousand in Europe (+8.0%), 192 thousand in Africa (+1.6%) and 880 thousand in Asia and the Middle East (-5,3%).

In the second quarter of 2026, Hapag-Lloyd's revenues have increased significantly, albeit more limitedly, as they have amounted to €5.02 billion (+8.4%), of which €4.88 billion generated by liner maritime services (+7.6%) and €165 million from port terminals and infrastructure sector (+38.7%). "The second quarter - commented the CEO of the Hapag-Lloyd, Rolf Habben Jansen - was better than the first thanks to significantly higher spot freight rates and a significant question. Our Gemini network has proven resilient and has continued to outperform the market, placing itself in the as the industry benchmark in terms of reliability of the schedules. In addition," he added, "the terminal business continues to grow and is becoming increasingly important supported by a high volume of traffic and investments in new infrastructure".

Unlike Maersk, the German company has suffered a increase in operating costs which was similar to the growth in revenues and this led to a value of quarterly EBITDA of €711.9 million, figure similar to that of the second quarter of 2025 and generated by a contribution of 664 million from containerized maritime transport (-1.3%) and 47 million from terminals and infrastructures (+20.5%), and an EBIT value of €150.1 million, in decrease of -3.8% and contributions from the two sectors of activity equal to respectively to 131 million (-3.7%) and 18 million (-10.0%). The profit net income was €70.5 million (-73.2%).

In the second quarter of this year, the container carriers of the Hapag-Lloyd transported loads totalling 3.48 million 20' containers (TEU) (+3.5%), of which 948 thousand on the Asia-Europe route (+2.0%), 1.28 million on the Asia-America route (+0.7%), 728 thousand on the Europe-America route (+1.7%) and 522 thousand TEUs on routes with Africa and intra-regional routes (+17.8%). The Average freight value was $1,475/TEU (+8,9%). The average freight rate of Asia-Europe services alone is A result of 1,448 dollars/TEU (+16.3%), that of services Asia-America at $1,469/TEU (+5.1%), the average freight rate of services Europe-America at 1,506 dollars/teu (+0.1%) and that of services with Africa and intra-regional markets at 1,494 dollars/TEU (+23.1%)

It should be recalled that Hapag-Lloyd is in the process of the acquisition of ZIM Integrated Shipping Services ( of 16 and 16 February 2026), which was approved on 30 April by the shareholders of the Israeli company.