A.P. Moeller-Maersk A/S (MAERSKB), owner of
the world’s biggest container-shipping company, plans to add
more vessels to its Singapore base after making the city-state
its biggest hub after the headquarters in Denmark.
Maersk Line has about 120 ships under the Singapore flag,
the most after 180 in Denmark, Thomas Knudsen, president of the
company’s Asia Pacific region, said in an interview yesterday.
Additions to Singapore have come at the expense of Hong Kong,
where the company now has about 40, he said.
“There’s a maritime cluster around Singapore where you
have access to pretty much all the different aspects of
shipping,” Knudsen said. “The last five years we have really
cleaned up to concentrate on fewer flags to get the economy of
scale. You can definitely get lower cost if you go to Panama or
Liberia, but we feel that Singapore is a good combination of
cost and quality.”
Consolidating the fleet to fewer flags is helping
Copenhagen-based Maersk lower costs to weather an
industry slowdown. Container lines globally have reduced speeds
of ships to reduce fuel consumption and over capacity and
mothballed older vessels as falling worldwide consumer demand
stints cargo volumes.
“Cutting costs is crucial for shipping lines to survive in
the current environment,” said Park Moo Hyun, an analyst at
E*Trade Securities Korea. “Shipping lines are looking at every
opportunity to find ways to cut costs.”
The container-line said last month profit this year will be
higher than the $461 million reached in 2012 as the company
reduces expenses and global container demand growth accelerates.
Danish Flag
Most of the new vessels Maersk Line will receive, will fly
under the island-city’s flag, Knudsen said in Singapore, without
elaborating. Maersk, due to take delivery of the world’s biggest
container ship in June, will register that vessel under the
Danish flag, Knudsen said. The ship will be able to carry 18,000
twenty-foot-equivalent boxes at a time.
Singapore, the world’s second-busiest container-port, has
provided incentives to lure companies to make it a maritime hub.
The island-city offers tax exemptions and more flexibility in
hiring crew members of any nationality to attract more shipping
lines to register their ships, according to the website of the
Maritime Port Authority of Singapore.
Singapore had the equivalent of 65 million gross tons of
vessels registered in the island last year, 13 percent more than
a year earlier. That made the city-state one of the world’s top
10 ship registries in the world, according to the port
authority. Maersk had 7.5 million gross tonnage under the
Singapore flag, the company said in an e-mail.
Singapore Base
Maersk, which owns an oil unit and a port-terminal
operator, also has 10 drilling rigs registered in Singapore,
said Rene Pedersen, a Singapore-based spokesman at the group.
About 70 percent of the global jack-up rigs and vessel
conversions into floating oil production units are done in
Singapore, according to transport ministry. Keppel Corp. and
Sembcorp Marine Ltd. (SMM), the world’s two biggest oil-rig makers,
are both based in the city-state.
The offshore and marine industry contributed an output of
more than S$16 billion ($13 billion) and is one of the fastest
growing sectors in Singapore’s economy, the ministry said.
“I think this place is a basket where we’re putting a lot
of eggs for the time being,” Pedersen said in the same
interview in Singapore. “We have a very efficient maritime
administration here. It’s easy to attract talent and that’s
crucial for companies like us.”
Myanmar Shipment
Singapore is also close to new markets for the company.
Last month, Maersk Line shipped a container box filled with
seafood from Myanmar to the U.S., the first time in about a
decade, Knudsen said. The shipping company also plans to open
its own agency in the Southeast Asian nation in the second half
as trade demand is expected to increase after U.S. sanctions
were lifted in 2012, he said.
Myanmar last month cleared about $1 billion in overdue debt
with the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank with a bridge
loan from Japan, opening the door for increased lending as it
seeks to overhaul its infrastructure. The World Bank, returning
to Myanmar after more than two decades, is in talks with the
government to help the country invest in gas turbines and expand
access to electricity.
To contact the reporter on this story:
Kyunghee Park in Singapore at
kpark3@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Anand Krishnamoorthy at
anandk@bloomberg.net
Maersk Line to Add More Ships to Singapore Base
Munshi Ahmed/Bloomberg
An A.P. Moeller-Maersk A/S container ship is berthed at the Pasir Panjang wharves at the Port of Singapore. Most of the new vessels Maersk Line will receive, will fly under the island-city’s flag.
An A.P. Moeller-Maersk A/S container ship is berthed at the Pasir Panjang wharves at the Port of Singapore. Most of the new vessels Maersk Line will receive, will fly under the island-city’s flag. Photographer: Munshi Ahmed/Bloomberg
Maersk Line to Add More Ships to Singapore Base: Southeast Asia
No comments:
Post a Comment