Maersk Line to reduce its network capacity and postpone investments in new capacity

As a response to both the short term and long term market outlook, Maersk Line is accelerating a number of already established cost and efficiency initiatives.

COPENHAGEN, 9-11-2015 — /EuropaWire/ — Maersk Line will reduce its network capacity and postpone investments in new capacity, while the same time reducing operating costs by escalating already announced plans to simplify the organisation. In light of the lower demand these initiatives will allow Maersk Line to deliver on the ambition to grow at least in line with the market to defend the market leading position.

Over the next two years, Maersk Line expects to lower the annual Sales, General & Administration (SG&A) cost run-rate by USD 250 million with an impact of USD 150 million in 2016. SG&A savings will be derived from already initiated transformation projects and the standardisation, automation and digitalisation of processes.

“We are on a journey to transform Maersk Line. We will make the organisation leaner and simpler. We want to improve our customer experience digitally and at the same time work as efficiently as possible,” says Søren Skou.

Today, Maersk Line has 23,000 land based staff globally. The organisational transformation and on-going automation and digitalisation will enable Maersk Line to reduce the global organisation by at least 4,000 positions by the end of 2017 with the aim of minimizing redundancies through managing natural attrition.

“We are fewer people today than a year ago. We will be fewer next year and the following year. These decisions are not taken lightly, but they are necessary steps to transform our industry,” concludes Søren Skou.

As a response to the current market outlook, network capacity will be reduced in Q4 2015 and throughout 2016. As already announced, the closure of four (4) services (ME5, AE9, AE3 and TA4) has already been initiated over the last two months and plans are in place to further cancel a total of 35 sailings in Q4.

Maersk Line will continue to manage capacity and does not plan to exercise the previously announced options for six (6) 19,630 TEU vessels and two (2) 3,600 TEU feeders and will postpone decision on the optional eight (8) 14,000 TEU vessels.

Maersk Line CEO Søren Skou will host a press conference call at 9.00 am CET today (4 November). For media representatives only. To participate please dial +44 1452 5555 66 or +45 3272 7625 and use conference ID 7444 0744. Please register for the call between 8.45 and 8.55 am CET.

The Maersk Group’s Interim Report for the third quarter 2015 (Q3) will be released on 6 November 2015.

Contact
‎Senior Press Officer Michael Christian Storgaard on +45 3363 3534 or michael.storgaard@maersk.com .

About Maersk Line
Maersk Line is the world’s largest container shipping company, known for reliable, flexible and eco-efficient services. We provide ocean transportation in all parts of the world. We serve our customers through 374 offices in 116 countries. We employ 7,100 seafarers and 23,000 land-based employees and operate 619 container vessels. We market our services through the Maersk Line, Safmarine and SeaLand (Intra-Americas) brands. Maersk Line is the holding company for MCC Transport (Intra-Asia) and Seago Line (Intra-Europe).

Maersk Line is part of the Maersk Group, headquartered in Copenhagen, Denmark. The Group employs about 89,207 people in around 130 countries. 2014 revenue: USD 48 billion.

SOURCE: THE MAERSK GROUP