By Aaron Sheldrick

TOKYO, Reuters – Japan’s largest and third-largest shipping companies, Nippon Yusen, and Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha reported record quarterly profits Thursday, as they benefited greatly from the higher freight rates and chaos in global supply chains.

As freight rates rose to their highest level since 2008s, the chaos within the international trade system threatens derail the recovery from the worst century-long health crisis.

Due to the shortage, “port and inland congestion didn’t improve.”

Nippon Yusen stated that this was the case for drivers in inland haulage.

According to Reuters calculations, quarterly profits reached 260 billion yen. This is more than 25-times the amount last year, according to Thursday’s announcement of fiscal half earnings.

This is according to Refinitiv Ekon data back to December 2002, the company’s highest quarterly profit.

Kawasaki Kisen reported a nearly 14-fold rise in second quarter profit, to 144 Billion yen, from the previous year, according to calculations using its first-half results. These figures were also published on Thursday. This was the highest profit since June 2003.

Maersk, the company that ships one of five container worldwide, announced this week that its quarterly profits tripled to nearly $7 billion. It also warned about port delays in 2019, and said it will continue to do so.