2025 Q3 Container Shipping Profit Ranking: Wan Hai Tops with 25.6% EBIT Margin
Publish Time: 2026-01-09 Origin: Site
Alphaliner has released its latest profit report on major global container shipping companies. Data shows Chinese shipping firms outperformed significantly in the global shipping market during Q3 2025.
Market Overview
The average operating profit margin of major global shipping companies rebounded sharply from 9.9% in Q2 to 13.7% in Q3, with a combined EBIT exceeding USD 4.3 billion.
Shippers rushed to ship goods ahead of tariff and port surcharge implementations, driving global container volumes to a new high and enabling many companies to deliver strong EBIT results despite previous pessimistic expectations.
Profit Ranking (EBIT Margin)
Wan Hai: 25.6% (Top)
Evergreen Marine: 22.7%
COSCO SHIPPING (including OOCL): 20.9%
Key Drivers Behind Chinese Companies' Outperformance
Wan Hai & Evergreen Marine: Deeply rooted in the American routes, regional routes, and some short-sea markets, they fully benefited from the "pre-shipment surge" before tariff adjustments.
COSCO SHIPPING: Leveraged its global network and alliance partnerships to flexibly allocate capacity across Asia-Europe, Trans-Pacific, and regional routes, balancing load factors and revenue management while avoiding over-reliance on a single route, thus effectively smoothing cyclical fluctuations.
Future Risks & Outlook
Alphaliner notes that with a large number of new ships to be delivered in the coming quarters, global capacity supply will continue to expand. Without large-scale geopolitical disruptions similar to the Red Sea diversion, both freight rates and capacity utilization will face greater pressure.
If the Red Sea route fully resumes and the normal route through the Suez Canal reopens, the additional capacity currently "locked up" by the detour via the Cape of Good Hope will re-enter the market, bringing non-negligible risks of falling freight rates and profit contraction.