Some of the largest shipping companies in the world are seeing a collapse in worldwide trade. United States-based shipper FedEx and Danish shipping giant A.P. Moller-Maersk A/S have been vocal about emerging signs of a global economic slowdown.
The latest to warn about weakening economic growth is FedEx CFO, Michael Lenz. He told an audience Tuesday at the Robert W. Baird Global Industrial Conference that the company has reduced flights and parked planes to cut costs in response to soft demand for package delivery.
Look, we absolutely will realize more of the structural cost savings in the second half of the year. That’s where you get more of the benefits start to roll in principally from — at Express, the flight reductions.
When you park the aircraft, particularly the older airplanes that we’re packing, you’re deferring a maintenance event, which is a significant expense. While at the same time, you have relatively low ownership costs on those.
So it’s an operationally and financially flexible way to manage capacity there. So as I said, we’re projecting a lower demand outlook for the foreseeable future here.
I don’t have a perfect crystal ball to say what the overall macro environment will be. Don’t have a full year earnings outlook for FY ’23. So I don’t have any specific projection to give you there, but rest assured, as some of these specifics that I was highlighting illustrate, we are fully committed to continuing to take the actions we need for changed expectations of what the operating environment is.” -Michael Lenz, ZeroHedge
Additionally, FedEx CEO Raj Subramaniam then went on CNBC‘s Jim Cramer’s evening show and warned Wall Street analysts and investors about a global slowdown, indicating a global recession was ahead.
Maersk, the world’s largest owner of container ships, lowered its outlook for the growth of 2022 global container demand, forecasting 2023 could be worse. There are even reports that the company is canceling sails. “There are plenty of dark clouds on the horizon,” the company wrote in its latest earnings report. “This weighs on consumer purchasing power which in turn impacts global transportation and logistics demand.”