World’s 10 biggest public shipping companies top all-time high profits of $300bn in five years – but pay less than half the average tax rate.

Since the pandemic, leading shipping companies’ profits have reached extraordinary scale. The world’s 139 largest shipping companies — accounting for 90% of the world’s fleet — made almost $340bn USD in profits from 2019-2023, the last year for which full figures are available. Of this huge sum, 93% was grabbed by the top 10 largest companies.

Yet, despite these record earnings, their taxes have remained catastrophically low. Our latest report — Global shipping: mega profits, micro taxes (PDF) shows that:

• The 10 largest companies paid only $30bn in tax from 2019-2023, creating an effective tax rate of just 9.7%. This is far below the global corporation tax average rate of 21.5%, and below the new Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) global minimum tax rate of 15% (from which shipping is exempt).

• More than $38bn extra in taxes could have been raised from the biggest four OECD companies alone – Maersk, CMA CGM, Hapag-Lloyd and ONE.

• The same four companies made over half of all profits globally ($174bn) and paid only $5.3bn in taxes, a tax rate of only 3.1%.

The international shipping sector has a significant impact on climate change, producing 1 billion tonnes of GHG emissions each year. Nowhere is this felt more acutely than in the Global South. Yet, this report shows that nine of the 10 most profitable companies are from high income developed economies and four of those headquartered in wealthy OECD states. Over 2019-2023, members of the OECD have an average tax rate on shipping companies of 4.3%, compared to a rest of the world average of 16.1%.

Shipping companies must start paying their fair share of taxes to align with the impact their operations have on our planet.

Later this month, discussions continue at the International Maritime Organization (IMO) regarding phasing out shipping’s greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. One option on the table is a levy on international shipping emissions. This is not only necessary under the polluter pays principle, whereby those who cause pollution should pay for the costs of its damage, it will also generate crucial and significant revenues which could go to climate-vulnerable developing countries, including small island developing states (SIDS) and least developed countries (LDCs), to further a just and equitable transition.

Read the report in full below.