ZIM Integrated Shipping Services Ltd., one of the world’s leading container shipping carriers focused on trades in select markets, today announced financial results for the three and twelve month periods ended December 31, 2015.
ZIM achieved an adjusted EBIT margin for the year of 3.9% and an adjusted EBITDA margin of 7.2%. This compares to an adjusted EBIT margin of negative 0.3% and an adjusted EBITDA margin of 3.4% in 2014. The Company’s strong improvement in margins in 2015 was achieved against a backdrop of challenging market conditions, highlighted by vessel overcapacity and extremely low freight rates.
Global capacity increased in 2015 by an historical amount of 1.7 million TEUs, or about 8.5%, and resulted in a sharp drop in freight rates, pushing the Shanghai Containerized Freight Index (SCFI) to all-time lows. While the idle fleet reached a peak of about 8% of global capacity, market challenges remain as the order book at the end of 2015 stood at 4M TEUs, out of which 1.3M TEUs are expected to be delivered during 2016.