The worldÂ’s largest shipping firm is gearing up to capture an even larger share of the global container shipping market.
AP Moller-Maersk (APM) managing director Nils Smedegaard Andersen said last week during the presentation of the companyÂ’s third quarter report that despite an industry-wide problem of overcapacity, the company was ready to grow.
“These are hard times for shipping,” he said. “But there are also good opportunities to improve our market share.”
One sign of the companyÂ’s positive outlook was that it plans to expand capacity by 30 percent, despite a current overcapacity. The increase in capacity also comes as APM said it expects downward pressures on freight rates and uncertain income levels to continue during the next few years.
During the third quarter, APM outpaced the market with a 16 percent increase in shipping activity. The company is already taking market share away from its competitors, but Andersen underscored that it had not done so by lowering its rates.
Much of the success of APMÂ’s container unit, Maersk Line, is due to its ability to maintain one of the best profit margins in the industry. In the third quarter report, the company stated that it aims to maintain a profit margin five percent over the industry average.
APM posted a profit margin of -2 percent in the third quarter, a worsening of its second quarter -1 percent margin. Even with the decline, Maersk had a higher profit margin than any of its competitors that had released their third quarter reports at the time of going to press.
Published in collaboration with financial newsletter Økonomisk Ugebrev.
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