Widening Gap In EBIT Margin

The main carriers’ average EBIT margins fell by 3.4% from the 2Q peak of 54.3% to 50.9%. However, the gap between individual carriers are widening, with some notable drops at Wan Hai (down 13.0%), OOCL (down 8.3%), HMM (down 6.8%) and Yang Ming (down 6.1%). Carriers with a larger share on the Asia-US West Coast have suffered the largest margin erosion, with a sharper drop expected in 4Q 2022 as the rate malaise has spread to other tradelanes.