The world’s container carriers smashed records in 2021 leading to reports of dramatic profit increases and while the growth is expected to moderate in the year ahead, the companies are still forecast to show another year of record results. Maritime research consults Drewry released its outlook for 2022 forecasting that higher carrier profits would drive industry sales past $500 billion for the first time in 2022 prompting Drewry to revise its earnings estimate to a staggering $200 billion for the full year.

“The gravy train kept on rolling for ocean carriers,” writes Drewry in its latest Container Forecaster report noting that the industry “once again exceeded our expectations,” with its third quarter 2021 reports. Drewry estimates EBIT performance at $70.9 billion for the third quarter, “a staggering nine-fold improvement from $7.6 billion in the same quarter a year ago.”Among the factors they foresee for 2022 is a reduction in volatility in the spot market instead expecting that the trend will continue to longer-term contracts although they forecast they will be signed at much higher rates.