Less than a year after freight rates were roaring, gilding transportation companies, the situation has turned around so fast that some companies now resort to price dumping in order to secure customers.

That was the takeaway from a Børsen interview with DSV’s chief executive officer, Jens Bjørn Andersen, after the company’s earnings saw a marked drop-off for Q1 in 2023.

”Price setting has been rather irrational on the market, and we have decided not to partake in it,” Andersen told Børsen, adding that the decision means that DSV has lost some market shares.

During the consumer party of the pandemic, freighting groups like DSV, Maersk, and their competitors were able to demand steep prices from companies that were desperate enough for shipped goods.

At the end of 2022 and the beginning of 2023, the market turned around as global economies started stumbling.

While the latest two quarters were rough, there are now signs that the crisis might not be as dire as initially thought.

DSV’s chief operating officer, Jens Lund, said on Thursday that consumption was shaping up once again, slowly.

”It’s not that the market has turned over completely. Amounts still don’t match previous levels, but it’s more fun to be down by 5-10 percent than by 20 percent,” he told ShippingWatch.

English edit: Christian Radich Hoffman