CEO: Maersk "Not Going to Give Up" on Shipping Business

by Ship & Bunker News Team
Monday November 26, 2012

Despite lower levels of profitability in the industry, A.P. Moeller-Maersk (Maersk) is "not going to give up on [its] position as the leading shipping company in the world," CEO Nils S. Andersen has told CNN.

Andersen said the company, which has announced plans to invest a larger portion of its capital in its oil, drilling, and terminals businesses, needs to build "other strong legs" in the face of a weak shipping market.

"Shipping is not the most profitable of the sectors we are in," he said.

Andersen said the U.S. and developing markets are performing reasonably well, but he anticipates more trouble in Europe as the region's "highly leveraged" economies deleverage.

"We actually think the world economy is moving in the right direction very, very slowly," he said.

"We believe that the second half of 2013 we will see container volumes starting to grow in the European markets again, albeit slowly."

Andersen said the company's ports business is positioned for good growth.

"The big advantage of the ports business is that it's infrastructure, it's fixed, and that means you have a more limited level of competition in the most important bottlenecks around the world," he said.

Despite moving a larger portion of its investment into other divisions, Andersen said Maersk will invest $6 to $8 billion in its shipping business over the next five years.

Ship & Bunker News Team
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