{"text":[[{"start":8.64,"text":"Maersk increased its profit guidance for the third time this year, betting that surging data centre demand would boost global trade although the shipping group’s shares fell on weaker than expected third-quarter results."}],[{"start":20.917,"text":"The world’s second-largest container shipping group lifted its forecast for underlying operating profit this year from $4.5bn-$6.5bn in August to $8bn-$8.5bn on Thursday. It started the year forecasting an operating loss of as much as $1.5bn."}],[{"start":39.126,"text":"“I feel for the years to come we are likely to see a stronger demand . . . You have this quite resilient container demand from consumer goods. But then you have this secular growth in electrification, energy transition, data centres, and AI,” Vincent Clerc, Maersk’s chief executive, told the FT."}],[{"start":57.12,"text":"Global trade demand has defied forecasts of a slowdown because of high inflation and the war in Iran, consistently surprising Clerc and other shipping executives due to strong demand between the US and China and the rest of Asia."}],[{"start":71.173,"text":"Shares in Maersk fell by 10 per cent as investors were disappointed with results in its third quarter, the most important for shipping due to moving goods ahead of Christmas. Its earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation were $4.7bn, up 75 per cent over the same period a year earlier, but below the consensus from Visible Alpha of $5.5bn."}],[{"start":93.257,"text":"Clerc said that analysts had been surprised by how strong Maersk’s second quarter was, and “put the bar [at a] completely unrealistic” level for the third quarter. “I don’t know where the spreadsheets are, but in the real world that we live in, we perform very well,” he added."}],[{"start":108.109,"text":"Clerc said he expected the investments in new energy and data centre infrastructure to be less cyclical than consumer goods, leading him to have confidence in container demand for the years ahead. New ships are typically delivered two to four years after being ordered."}],[{"start":123.219,"text":"Maersk’s chief said nearly all the solar panels in the world as well as significant components for wind turbines, cooling systems and other equipment for data centres and semiconductors were transported by ocean. The Danish group carries about one in five of all seaborne containers, making it a barometer for global trade."}],[{"start":142.16,"text":"Maersk has changed strategy in recent months after being more cautious than rival groups in using bumper profits after the Covid-19 pandemic to buy more ships. The Danish group long feared that container shipping would have overcapacity of ships and lost its crown as the world’s largest container line to Mediterranean Shipping Company in 2022. Analysts say that France’s CMA CGM could overtake it as the industry number two player by capacity in the coming months."}],[{"start":171.6,"text":"Maersk has responded by ordering more new ships of its own over the summer."}],[{"start":182.8,"text":""}]],"url":"https://audio.ftcn.net.cn/album/a_1793877112_1907.mp3"}