Danish shipping giant Maersk Line delivered a profit of USD 685m, improving by USD 131m compared to Q3 2013, according to the third quarter results of the Maersk Group.

Maersk said that the improvement was driven by lower unit costs through the continuous focus on operational cost savings mainly from vessel network efficiencies supported by an increase in the average freight rate.

Return on invested capital (ROIC) improved from 10.9% in Q3 2013 to 13.5% in Q3 2014. The underlying result excluding one-offs came at USD 660m (USD 539m).

Revenue of USD 7.1bn was 4.3% higher than Q3 2013, positively impacted by a volume increase of 3.7% to 2,401k FFE as well as by the average freight rate increasing 0.9% to 2,679 USD/FFE.

Recognised freight revenue was USD 6.5bn (USD 6.1bn) and other revenue USD 599m (USD 662m). According to the report, unit cost decreased by 0.9% to 2,597 USD/FFE mainly driven by vessel network efficiencies and decreased bunker consumption.

Maersk Line’s nominal fleet capacity increased by 6.3% and the average vessel size increased by 5.6% compared to Q3 2013. Idle capacity at the end of Q3 2014 was 1k TEU (one vessel) versus 24k TEU (seven vessels) at the end of Q3 2013. Maersk Line’s idle capacity corresponds to less than 1% of total idle capacity in the market

Eight Triple-E vessels totalling 144k TEU are on order for delivery during 2014-2015. One Triple-E container vessel suited for the Asia-Europe trade will be delivered during Q4 2014.

The global market showed moderate growth of above 3% in Q3 2014 compared to Q3 2013, slightly lower than demand growth during the first half of 2014.

Maersk added that the global demand is currently being led by advanced economies while imports to emerging countries are slowing down. At the end of Q3 2014, the global container vessel fleet were at 18m TEU, an increase of 5.4% compared to a year ago.

While 367k TEU (53 vessels) were delivered during Q3 2014, only 44k TEU (30 vessels) were sent for demolition and idling was as low as 1.2% at the end of the quarter.

New ordering amounted to around 300k TEU (36 vessels), keeping the order book close to 20% of the fleet.

The underlying profit for the Maersk Group was USD 1.3bn when excluding discontinued operations, impairments and divestments, Maersk said in its interim report.