There are those who say that the recent positive phase in the field of the traditional cyclicality of the shipping market containerized has also been exhausted for the ZIM. There are those (like us) who - drawing conclusions from reading of the last quarterly balance of the shipping company Israeli - note how the document, like those of others main competitors of the market, testify that the exceptional and Far from usual last phase of this market is actually concluding.

The fact is that also for the ZIM the first quarter of 2023 seals the closure of a period perhaps unrepeatable for carriers containerized seafarers, a cycle that also for the Israeli carrier began in the third quarter of 2020 when the impulse to Scheduled transport by sea affected by the effects of the pandemic Covid-19 planetary has impressed on the company's revenues of Haifa a trend progression of +20.3% and to the net profit a increase of +128.7%. Astronomical performance growth which reached its peak in the first quarter of the last year when the first signs of A trend reversal. Downward trend that finally led in the first quarter of 2023 the ZIM to record a result operating negative after 16 consecutive quarters of Company result net of interest and taxes positive.

The operating result for the first three months of this year, In fact, it fell to -13.9 million dollars compared to a Record operating profit of $2.24 billion in corresponding period of 2022. A consequent negative result a reduction of the -63,0% of the revenues, attested to 1,37 billion dollars only partially offset by a smaller one decrease of -16.0% of operating costs that have fallen to 939.7 Million. So also the net loss of -58,1 million accused in the first quarter of 2023 is light years away from record net profit of $1.71 billion in first three months of last year.

First factor to have determined the rapid and stunning first Rise and then the even faster decline in results economic is the value of sea freight, tariff of containerized sea transport that for ZIM has revealed to be in the first three months of 2023 on average equal to 1,390 dollars for container boarded, with a decrease of the -63,9% regarding the Record of 3,848 dollars / teu of the first three months of 2022.

The sharp deterioration in financial performance has The decrease in cargo volumes also contributed containerized transported by the fleet of the Israeli company, in decline now in the last four quarters, with a total that in the period January-March of this year it was equal to 769mial teu (- 10%), of which 274 thousand teu transported on the routes transpacific (-4%), 109 thousand on transatlantic (-30%), 219 thousand teu on intra-Asian routes (- 19%), 51 thousand teu from services with Latin America (-9%) and - the only growth - 116 thousand teu on the routes Asia-Europe (+23%).

ZIM still plans to close the entire annual financial year 2023 with an operating profit. "Our expectation - has explained the president and CEO of the company, Eli Glickman - is of a recovery in demand, coinciding with the need to restore stocks, which will begin in the second half of this year, resulting in a freight improvement'. Glickman specified that EBITDA Expected adjusted is between 1.8 and 2.2 billion dollars compared to Adjusted EBITDA of 7.54 billion in fiscal year 2022 and the expected Adjusted EBIT for 2023 is between $100 million and $500 million vs. $6.14 billion in 2022.