COPENHAGEN, May 7 (Reuters) - Shipping group Maersk posted first-quarter operating profits slightly above analyst forecasts on Thursday and kept its full-year earnings guidance unchanged.
Underlying earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortisation (EBITDA) for the January-March period came in at $1.73 billion, compared to a median forecast of $1.66 billion in a company-provided poll of 10 analysts.
Maersk, which is often seen as a bellwether for global trade, still projects global container
volume growth of between 2% and 4% this year.
"We've seen strong demand across most regions this quarter, supporting robust volume growth in our three business segments," Chief Executive Vincent Clerc said in a statement.
The first quarter does not capture the Middle East war's full impact on global supply chains as the conflict began on February 28 when the United States and Israel launched coordinated strikes on Iran.
The war has disrupted shipping routes across the region after Iran closed the Strait of Hormuz to commercial traffic, pushing up costs such as fuel.
The security situation remained fragile, with French shipping group CMA CGM saying on Wednesday that one of its container ships was hit while transiting the Strait of Hormuz, injuring crew and damaging the vessel.
The Middle East security situation also impacts shipping in the Red Sea, forcing Maersk to continue to reroute vessels around Africa, away from the Suez Canal and the Bab el-Mandeb Strait.
This marked an abrupt stop to Maersk's tentative efforts for a gradual return of some services to the Suez route, seen as a key step towards ending years of global trade disruption caused by attacks on ships in the Red Sea by Yemen's Houthi rebels.
(Reporting by Stine Jacobsen and Jesus Calero, editing by Terje Solsvik)
