A.P. Møller - Mærsk A/S reported stronger-than-expected second-quarter results and raised its 2026 guidance for the second time this year, as port congestion, strong Asian export demand and higher container freight rates boosted profitability. Revenue rose 20% year over year to $15.8 billion, EBITDA increased to $3 billion from $2.3 billion and beat the $2.12 billion market consensus, EBIT climbed to $1.6 billion with a 10% margin, and net profit more than doubled to $1.26 billion from $586 million. In the Ocean segment, revenue rose 23% and volumes increased 4.1%, with elevated freight rates offsetting higher rerouting and fuel costs tied to the Middle East conflict. Maersk said global container demand in the second quarter exceeded expectations, led by China, and expects the strong trend to continue into the third quarter even as Middle East import volumes fell 40%. Chief Executive Vincent Clerc said freight rates are currently being driven more by port and landside congestion than by the Middle East conflict itself, with bottlenecks across Northern Europe, South America, West Africa and China and waiting times at Shanghai reaching as long as 12 days. Maersk raised full-year underlying EBITDA guidance to $10.5 billion-$12.5 billion from $8 billion-$10 billion and lifted underlying EBIT guidance to $4.5 billion-$6.5 billion from $2 billion-$4 billion, while keeping its forecast for global container market volume growth at about 4%. The company said uncertainty remains around the Middle East conflict, fuel costs and the pace of restoring Suez Canal routes, and Clerc said Maersk has returned 4 of 13 affected routes to the Suez Canal or Red Sea, equal to about one-third of normal volumes. German peer Hapag-Lloyd also reported improved quarterly EBITDA and said higher costs related to the Middle East crisis were offset by strong Asian exports and better U.S. demand.