COPENHAGEN, Aug. 16 (Xinhua) -- Danish oil and shipping group A.P. Moeller-Maersk reported a loss of 264 million U.S. dollars for the first half of 2017, and maintained its annual projections for the full-year, the company said Wednesday.
The loss, which is mainly attributed to a post-tax impairment of 732 million dollars primarily relating to lower asset valuations in Maersk Tankers and a few terminals in APM Terminals, compares with the 118 million dollars net profit it reported for the same period last year, according to its interim financial report.
Revenue for the first half of 2017 rose to 18.6 billion dollars, up 6.9 percent from 17.4 billion dollars year-on-year.
For the second quarter alone, Maersk generated revenue of 9.6 billion dollars, an increase of 7.9 percent from 8.9 billion dollars for the same period last year.
Maersk said the second quarter performance was mainly driven by a profitable Maersk Line due to continued recovery in the container market and focus on restoration of profitability.
"Maersk Line is again profitable delivering in line with guidance, with revenue growing by one billion dollars year-on-year in the second quarter," said CEO Soeren Skou in a statement.
The boost was mainly driven by a 22-percent increase in the average freight rate, and partly by a 1.7-percent increase in volumes, according to the report.
However, the group saw a decline of 136 million dollars in energy activities, which was primarily related to Maersk Drilling, where a large number of rigs were idle, and where old contracts at higher day rates had expired.
Maersk maintains its earnings guidance for the full-year 2017, forecasting "an underlying profit above 2016 despite expected negative impact from the June cyber attack."
Meanwhile, gross capital expenditure for 2017 is still expected to be between 5.5 and 6.5 billion dollars.
However, it added the guidance for 2017 was subject to "considerable uncertainty, not least due to developments in the global economy, the container freight rates and the oil price."
Maersk was one of many global companies to be hit on June 27 by a malware NotPetya. The impact of the cyber attack was mainly in Maersk Line and a negative result is expected at a level of 200 to 300 million dollars, the company said.
