AP M?ller-Maersk has again lifted its annual profit forecasts due to prolonged supply chain disruption, as the world’s second-largest container shipping group said that a “normalisation” in the market would take longer than expected.

The Danish shipping and logistics group said on Tuesday that it anticipated its full-year profits would be about a quarter higher than previously forecast and that the “gradual normalisation” in freight rates it thought would emerge in the middle of this year was now more likely to come in the fourth quarter.

Maersk raised its full-year forecast for underlying operating profits to about $31bn from $24bn previously. It now expects underlying earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (ebitda) to reach $37bn this year from an earlier prediction of $30bn.