Closing an exception year, Israeli container shipping heavyweight ZIM is bullish on the outlook, especially as it starts to welcome LNG-powered newbuilds into the fleet.
The company reported total revenues for the full year of 2022 worth $12.56 billion, compared to $10.73 billion for 2021, primarily driven by elevated freight rates. Net income for the full year of 2022 was $4.63 billion, compared to $4.65 billion in 2021.
ZIM carried 3,380 thousand TEUs in 2022, compared to 3,481 thousand TEUs in the full year of 2021.
“Over the past two years, we have taken important steps amidst a highly lucrative market to best position ZIM to execute in a more normalized trading environment. Specifically, we enhanced our vessel sourcing strategy to secure attractive newbuild capacity and improve our cost structure,” Eli Glickman, ZIM President & CEO, said.
“Our chartered LNG-powered newbuild capacity is expected to significantly improve our cost structure throughout 2023 and beyond, strengthen our commercial prospects and advance our ESG objectives for ZIM and our customers.”
ZIM welcomed into the fleet its first LNG-powered containership ZIM Sammy Ofer a month ago.
The LNG-powered 15,000 TEU boxship was built for Seaspan and chartered by Israel-based shipowner ZIM Integrated Shipping Services. It is the first of a total of ten vessels of the same size intended for ZIM.
The LNG-powered ZIM Sammy Ofer is expected to provide a 23% emission reduction, an important step forward in the industry’s journey to decarbonize, Seaspan said.
The containership departed Asia earlier this week heading for the United States East Coast. The vessel joins ZIM’s flagship service, ZIM Container Service Pacific (ZCP), from Asia to the USA East Coast. After touring U.S. ports Savannah, Charleston, Norfolk, and New York the vessel is expected to proceed to Haifa for a ‘grand welcoming ceremony’ scheduled for April 30th, 2023.
In 2023, the company expects to generate Adjusted EBITDA of between $1.8 billion and $2.2 billion and Adjusted EBIT of between $100 to $500 million.
“While macroeconomic uncertainties, the precipitous decline in freight rates over the past few months, and the supply-demand imbalance continue to drive a challenging near-term outlook for container shipping, we are confident in ZIM’s strategy and believe we will generate positive EBIT in 2023,” Glickman concluded.