COPENHAGEN: February 09, 2017. A.P. Møller-Mærsk has reported a loss of US$1.89 billion for 2016 on revenue of US$35.46 billion, down from a profit of US$925 million on US$40.30 billion revenue the previous year.

Maersk Line recorded a loss of US$376m on a 13 percent decline in revenue to US$20.7 billion. This compared to a profit of US$1.3 billion on revenue of US$23.7 billion in 2015.

The company said the result was due to poor market conditions leading to sustained lower freight rates partly offset by higher volumes and lower unit costs related to lower bunker price, higher utilization and cost efficiencies.

Maersk Line has 27 vessels on order totalling 367,000 TEU for delivery in 2017 and 2018. This consists of eleven 19,600 TEU second generation Triple­E, nine 14,000 TEU vessels and seven 3,600 TEU ice­class vessels for the intra­European market.

APM Terminals reported a profit of US$438 million on revenue of US$4.17 billion. Lower profit in "commercially challenged" terminals in Latin America, North-West Europe and Africa was only partly offset by cost saving initiatives.

Damco increased its net profit to US$31 million from US$19 million in 2015 on revenue of US$2.5 billion.

Commenting on the results Group CEO 2016 Søren Skou acknowledged 2016 was a "difficult year" with an "unsatisfactory" result mainly due to the loss at Maersk Line.

"Our top priorities for 2017 remain integrating our Transport & Logistics businesses, taking out cost in APM Terminals and Damco, closing the Hamburg-Süd acquisition, as well as progressing the work on finding structural solutions for each of our oil and oil-related businesses," he explained.

Skou said he expected the group to deliver a higher underlying profit this year, mainly driven by a US$1 billion improvement in Maersk Line results compared to 2016.