Maersk celebrates 50 years in the container shipping business
COPENHAGEN : AP Moller-Maersk celebrated 50 years Anniversary and entered the field of containerisation. The Danish giant got into the sector on 5 September 1975, when Maersk Mc-Kinney Moller inaugurated the first container service from the US East Coast to Asia. That moment marked the beginning of Maersk Line’s fully containerised services, notes Maersk historian Charlotte Andersen.
Maersk’s arrival in containers was late — considering that American entrepreneur Malcolm McLean had entered the sector in 1956. Competitors Sealand and NYK were already working on developing containers.“There were multiple factors to why we did not start a container service sooner,” Andersen told TradeWinds.
“ An internal study in 1970 had concluded a bit cautiously that the investment was too big to justify. “And since AP Moller had passed away in 1965, his son had launched many new businesses.”
Rather than take the plunge into containers, Maersk diversified into a wide range of industries, ranging from aviation to oil and gas. Taking on yet another huge investment was risky, as investment in containers requiring substantial capital for vessels and equipment.
“Then in 1972 another internal study concluded that the ‘threat’ was too great to ignore, and we had to move forward with it,” Andersen said. By May 1973, the company had ordered nine container vessels from German shipyards.
The first vessel, the 1,800-teu Adrian Maersk, was delivered in August 1975.
It was introduced on the Panama Line, a service Maersk had been running since 1928, connecting the US East Coast to Asia via the Panama Canal. In the 10 years following its container shipping debut, Maersk added 33 container or semi-container vessels to its fleet.
By 1985, it was the world’s third-largest container carrier, and most conventional liner services had either been containerised or were in the process of being transformed.
“In just a decade, Maersk had restructured its global operations around containerisation — an extraordinary pace of change for a company that had once hesitated to take the first step,” Andersen said.
Today, Maersk is the world’s second-largest container line.
The company was founded in 1904 by AP Moller with a single steamship. It grew into one of the biggest shipping companies in the world, with interests in containers, tankers, offshore drilling, shipbroking, shipbuilding, ports and more.
Source: TradeWinds