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Last year, Opportunity Green’s Global Shipping 2023: mega profits, micro taxes revealed that the world’s largest shipping companies made more than $300bn in profits from 2019 to 2023.
Our latest report shows the trend is far from over. In 2024 alone, 10 of the world’s largest shipping companies with publicly available accounts made $42.9bn in profits.
Yet their tax contributions remain strikingly low. In the same year, they paid just $5bn in taxes – an effective tax rate of just 11.91%, far below the global average corporate tax rate of 21.1%. This is largely driven by a purpose-built “tonnage tax” system used in wealthy countries, including the EU and Japan.
This combination of soaring profits and low tax rates stands in stark contrast to the industry’s climate impact. With climate negotiations at the International Maritime Organization resuming in London this month, these figures make clear that the sector has both the means and the responsibility to contribute more.
The scale of the problem
- Between 2019 and 2023, 10 of the world’s largest shipping companies made more than $300bn in profits. In 2024 alone, they added a further $42.9bn.
- Yet, due to shipping’s privileged tax regime, those companies paid a 2024 effective tax rate of just 11.91% – well below the global average corporation tax rate of 21.1%.
- Had those 10 shipping companies paid the same taxes as other companies do in their home countries, $4.3bn more in tax would have been raised – enough to provide 28m people with food aid, every day, for an entire year.
What’s covered in the report?
This report brings together the latest data and analysis on the shipping sector’s profits and tax contributions. It includes:
- Estimates of profits made and taxes paid by 10 of the world’s largest container shipping companies in 2024.
- Analysis of how mega profits and micro taxes are driven by shipping’s privileged tax regime, alongside geopolitical and climate-driven instability.
- Discussion of these figures in the context of shipping’s climate impact and policies designed to address these.
- New analysis of decarbonisation investments by Maersk and Hapag-Lloyd, assessed against the EU Taxonomy.
