🚨HMM Q3 2025: Profits Collapse, Margin Survives — Discipline Over Demand!
🔥Tariffs hit volumes. Rates plunge. Yet HMM protects its margin.
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🔥 Greetings, Maritime Mavericks!
The world’s 8th largest container carrier - HMM’s Q3 2025 is the story of a carrier hit hard by U.S. tariffs, rate collapse, and a 52% crash in SCFI — yet still reporting one of the highest operating margins in the industry.
This quarter shows one thing clearly:
HMM is not growing — it is surviving with discipline.Here’s the full picture, fast and simple:
📉 Revenue down –23.8% YoY
📉 Operating profit down –79.7% YoY
📉 Net profit down –82.5% YoY
📈 But operating margin still 11%
📊 SCFI –52% YoY (3,082 → 1,481)
HMM protected profitability through cost control, route optimization, and high-margin cargo focus.
1️⃣ Why did HMM’s revenue fall so much in Q3?
2️⃣ How severe was the freight rate collapse?
3️⃣ How did HMM stay profitable despite falling rates and volumes?
4️⃣ What caused the nearly –80% drop in operating profit?
5️⃣ What do the 9-month results reveal about overall performance?
6️⃣ How did unit costs behave in Q3?
7️⃣ Why did HMM maintain an 11% operating margin?
8️⃣ What is the biggest risk heading into Q4 2025?
9️⃣ What strategic actions is HMM taking to protect profitability?
🔟 What does the outlook for Q4–2026 look like?
Let’s break Q3 into 10 sharp questions — clear, simple, and brutally insightful.
1️⃣ Why did HMM’s revenue fall so much in Q3?
Because U.S. tariffs slashed export volumes and rates collapsed.
Q3 revenue: KRW 2,706B (USD ~1.84B) vs last year KRW 3,552B (USD ~2.41B)
💡Tariff-driven volume shocks now have a larger impact on Korean carriers than pure market cycles.
2️⃣ How severe was the freight rate collapse?
Very severe — one of the deepest in the market.
SCFI: 3,082 → 1,481 (–52%)
Trans-Pacific:
West Coast: –69%
East Coast: –63%
💡HMM operates in the world’s most tariff-sensitive and rate-volatile corridor, amplifying revenue swings.