COPENHAGEN, Denmark (Dow Jones) – The world's biggest container shipping company, A.P Moller Maersk A/S, said it expects to continue suffering through the rest of the year as it swung to a first half loss on plunging container freight volumes.

The Denmark-based company said the outlook for the rest of 2009 is subject to "considerable uncertainty," especially when it comes to container freight rates, transported volumes, the dollar exchange rate and oil prices.

"That's a pretty bleak and disappointing comment from the management," said Jyske Bank analyst Karsten Sloth. "That indicates there will be a huge loss for the full year."

While Maersk is staying pessimistic on its outlook, there are signs that the worst may be over for the world trade market.

World trade flows plummeted in the final months of last year, as demand slowed and banks shied away from financing any cross-border transactions, even traditionally low-risk exports and imports. The collapse in trade hit the world's largest exporting economies – such as Japan and Germany – particularly hard. Many container shipping operators took parts of their fleets out of operation as freight rates dropped.

But in recent months there have been signs that the decline in trade is coming to an end and with trade steadying, so are the big exporting economies. The economies of both German and Japan grew in the second quarter as exports revived.

Maersk, which also has an oil and gas producing unit, booked a first-half net loss of 3.67 billion Danish kroner ($702 million), compared with a profit of DKK11.59 billion in the same period a year earlier and well below analysts' expectations of a DKK3.13 billion loss.

Jyske Bank's Sloth said the profit figure missed expectations because Maersk's oil and gas unit had to pay DKK8.81 billion in taxes, more than analysts had expected. However, the figure was well below the DKK18.84 billion tax bill a year earlier.

Revenue for the half-year fell 14% to DKK127.39 billion , from DKK148.37 billion, as freight rates fell 30% on the year and volumes fell 7%. The company also blamed lower oil prices, with the average price of Brent crude oil 52% lower than in the first half of 2008.

It also booked DKK1.25 billion in impairments as it wrote down the value of property, plants and tankers, and gains on the sale of ships and rigs fell to DKK440 million, from DKK3.58 billion a year earlier.

The company said it is cutting costs and postponing investments in response to the downturn, but it has got financing for its shipbuilding program "essentially" in place.