Maersk heading for record profits, gives $80 million to employees

A.P. Moller-Maersk A/S is giving $1,000 to each of its roughly 80,000 employees as the world’s largest shipping company heads for record profits this year.

The bonus will be in December or January paychecks, according to an internal memo seen by Bloomberg News. The top 400 managers at the Copenhagen-based company aren’t included in the program.

Maersk is set to report net income of more than $17 billion for 2021, according to analyst estimates. The record-breaking performance comes after global supply-chain disruptions have doubled freight rates several times over.

“In a massive team effort our colleagues across the globe have risen beyond the call of duty to respond to our customers’ needs,” Chief Executive Officer Soren Skou said in the memo. “And this has not been easy given the unknowns and disruptions that we had to deal with, the impacted supply chains, congestions, and capacity shortages.” 

Maersk also paid a $1,000 bonus to most employees in 2020 when the company reported a profit of $2.9 billion after losing money in three of the previous four years. The 2021 bonus was first reported by the Borsen newspaper earlier on Wednesday.