Maersk

The SS Laura in 1886 in Svendborg, Denmark

P. M. Møller (1836–1927), who was a deeply religious Christian, attached a blue banner with a white seven pointed star on both sides of the black chimney on the steamship Laura when his wife recovered from illness. In a letter to his wife, P. M. Møller explained in October 1886, "The little star on the chimney is a memory of the night when I prayed for you and asked for a sign: If a star would appear in the gray and cloudy sky, it would mean that the Lord answers prayers." The same star later became the emblem of the Maersk Group.[22]

A.P. Moller–Maersk is structured into two main business segments: transport & logistics and energy. These two branches include several subsidiaries such as container shipping and related activities; APM Terminals; tankers, training, offshore and other shipping activities; oil and gas activities; retail activity; and shipyards, other industrial companies, interest in Danske Bank, etc.[14][23]

"Container shipping and related activities" is the largest business area for A.P. Moller–Maersk, providing almost half of the group's revenue in 2008. It comprises worldwide container services, logistics and forwarding and terminal activities under the brand names: Maersk Line, Safmarine, and Damco.[24] For the first since 1996, Maersk has been overtaken by MSC, which has become the container line with largest shipping capacity.

.[25]

Mærsk Kalamata in Seattle harbor

Eleonora Mærsk, one of the E-class vessels

The largest operating unit in A. P. Moller–Maersk by revenue and staff (around 25,000 employees in 2012)[26] is Maersk Line. In 2013, the company described itself as the world's largest overseas cargo carrier and operated over 600 vessels with 3.8 million[27] twenty-foot equivalent unit (TEU) container capacity. As of January 2021, as the largest container fleet, it held 17% of the global TEU.[28]

In 2006, the largest container ship in the world to that date, the E-class vessel Emma Maersk, was delivered to Maersk Line from Odense Steel Shipyard.[29] Since, seven other sister ships have since been built, and on 21 February 2011 Maersk ordered ten even larger container ships from Daewoo, the Triple E class, each with a capacity of 18,000 containers. The first were delivered in 2013.[30] There was an option for 10–20 more,[31][32][33] and in June 2011, Maersk placed a follow-on order for a second batch of ten sister ships (to the same design with the same shipyard), but cancelled its option for a third batch of ten.

As of February 2010, Maersk had an order book for new ships totalling 857000TEU (including options on the Triple E class); that backlog is larger than the existing fleet of the fourth-largest line, Evergreen Line.[25]

Maersk Line cooperated with the United States Navy on testing 7–100% algae biofuel on the Maersk Kalmar in December 2011.[34][35]

In January 2012, Søren Skou took over as CEO of Maersk Line from Eivind Kolding.[36][37] Later that year, the company ceased its business in Iran in order to prevent potential damage to the company's business with Western countries, particularly the US, due to the sanctions regime led by those countries.[38][39]

APM Terminals at Portsmouth, Virginia, United States

A. P. Moller–Maersk's independent APM Terminals business unit with its separate headquarters in The Hague, Netherlands, operates a Global Port, Terminal and Inland Services Network with interests in 57 ports and container terminals in 36 countries on five continents, as well as 155 Inland Services operations in 48 countries. Port and Terminal Operations include:

• Europe: Algeciras, Aarhus, Barcelona, Bremerhaven, Gothenburg, Port of Poti, Rotterdam-Maasvlakte, Rotterdam-Maasvlakte 2, Wilhelmshaven-JadeWeserPort, Valencia, Gijon, Zeebrugge, Vado Ligure Reefer Terminal and Vado Gateway.
• North America: Los Angeles, Miami, Mobile, Port Elizabeth, and Tacoma.
• Latin America: Buenos Aires, Buenaventura (Colombia), Cartagena, Itajaí, Pecém, Callao, Santos, Lázaro Cárdenas, Puerto Quetzal, Yucatan, and Limon (Costa Rica).
• Middle East: Aqaba, Haifa, Bahrain, Salalah, Port Said and Jebel Ali.
• Asia: Cai Mep, Colombo, Dalian, Guangzhou, Kobe, Laem Chabang, Karachi, Pipavav, Qingdao, Tanjung Pelepas, Tianjin, Shanghai, Xiamen, Yokohama, India, and Singapore.
• Africa: Abidjan, Apapa, Cotonou, Douala, Luanda, Monrovia, Onne, Pointe Noire, Port Elizabeth, Tangier, and Tema.
• New projects under construction: Savona, and Tema.

Svitzer Bootle assisting Mærsk Newcastle on the River Thames

Maersk Container Industry A/S: Container manufacturing with factories in China (Dongguan and Qingdao) and headquarters in Denmark (Tinglev).[14]

Container Inland Services: Includes: depots, equipment repair, trucking, container sales and related activity.[14]

Svitzer was founded as a salvage client in 1833 before entering the towing business in 1870. Svitzer become majority owned by Maersk in 1979.[40][41] Svitzer has continued to grow including through purchasing the tugboat operations of Adsteam[42] and it now has a fleet of over 400 tugs, line handlers and other vessels. The company provides harbour and terminal towage services in over 100 ports and 20 oil and gas terminals across the globe.[43] As of January 2022 Svitzer operates a fleet of 110 vessels in seven ports and 11 terminals across 12 countries in Svitzer operates in the Africa, Middle East & Asia region.[44][45]

Damco was the combined brand of the Maersk Group's logistics activities previously known as Maersk Logistics and Damco.[24] As of 2008 Damco had 10,800 employees in offices in more than 93 countries.[24] and was involved in supply chain management and freight forwarding all over the world. In September 2019 Maersk announced that they would dissolve the Damco brand and integrate their remaining activities after initially merging Maersk Line and Damco at the beginning of 2019 at which time the freight forwarding business of Damco stayed separate.[46] The dissolving of the Damco brand was completed by the end of 2020.[47]

Maersk Oil (Danish: Mærsk Olie og Gas A/S) was established in 1962[48] when Maersk was awarded a concession for oil and gas exploration and production in the Danish sector of the North Sea. Maersk Oil is engaged in the exploration for and production of oil and gas in many parts of the world. Total oil production is more than 600,000 barrels per day (95,000 m³/d) and gas production is up to some 1 billion cubic feet (28,000,000 m³) per day. Most of this production is from the North Sea, from both the Danish and British sectors, but there is also production in offshore Qatar, in Algeria and in Kazakhstan.

In addition to the above-mentioned producing sites, Maersk Oil is involved in exploration activities in Danish, British, Dutch and Norwegian sectors of the North Sea, Qatar, Algeria, Kazakhstan, Angola, Gulf of Mexico (US sector), Turkmenistan, Oman, Morocco, Brazil, Colombia and Suriname. Most of these activities are not 100% owned but are via membership in a consortium. The company developed production techniques especially suited to difficult environments (The North Sea, etc.) and for drilling techniques that extract oil from problematic underground conditions.

Oil and gas activities provided A .P. Moller – Maersk with 22% of its revenue and 68% of its profit in 2008.[24] On 21 August 2017, A. P. Møller - Mærsk A/S announced the signing of an agreement to sell Mærsk Olie og Gas A/S to Total S.A. for US$7.45 billion in a combined share and debt transaction.[49] The transaction was subject to regulatory and competition approval and was closed on 8 March 2018,[50] when Maersk Oil became a part of Total.

Maersk Drilling supports global oil and gas production by providing high-efficiency drilling services to oil companies around the world.[51] The company owns 24 rigs and its fleet consists of six Ultra-Harsh jack-ups, four XL Enhanced jack-ups (including one new build which is set for delivery in late 2016), four Harsh jack-ups, two Premium jack-up, four semi-submersibles and four Ultra deepwater drillships.[51] Maersk Drilling is among others a market leader in the Norwegian jack-up market with a market share of 7 out of 12 rig As of 2016.

Maersk Supply Service provides anchor handling, towage of drilling rigs and platforms as well as supply service to the offshore industry. By 2021, the fleet consists of 41 vessels including anchor handling tug supply vessels (AHTS), subsea support vessels (SSV) and platform supply vessels (PSV).[52]

Maersk Line, Limited (MLL) is a US-based subsidiary of A.P. Moller–Maersk Group which owns and operates a fleet of US-flag vessels providing the U.S. Federal Government and their contractors with multimodal transportation and logistics services. A Virginia-based organization, MLL manages the world's largest fleet of internationally trading US-flagged vessels.

Maersk Line has been involved in Department of Justice Investigations and paid fines in 2012.[53]

MCC Transport hosts containerized cargo services in the Intra-Asia market. The company was later renamed Sealand-Asia.

Safmarine Nokwanda

Seago Line is a subsidiary shipping line which serves ports in the Mediterranean region.[54] The company is now Sealand- Europe and Mediterranean.

Safmarine is an independently operated shipping company in the A. P. Moller–Maersk Group with roots in Africa. It operates a fleet of more than 40 container vessels and more than 20 multi purpose vessels (MPVs).[55] The company has five container vessels and four MPVs on order for delivery in 2009–2011.[56] In September 2020, it was announced that the Safmarine brand will be integrated into Maersk.[57]

SeaLand, branded "Sealand – A Maersk Company", is an American regional maritime and logistics operator. It has been part of A. P. Moller - Maersk since 1999.[58][59][60] The Sealand name was phased out in 2009,[61] but revived as a separate brand in 2014.[62] After focussing on intermodal services between North, Central and South America, in 2018 it was merged with other Maersk intra-regional brands MCC Transport and Seago Lines to cover European, Mediterranean, and Intra-Asian markets.[63][64]

Maersk GSC operates shared service centres that handle back office, off-shore activities for AP Moller Maersk Group. GSCs are located in Chennai, Mumbai, Pune, Bengaluru, Chengdu, and Metro Manila.

Tankers, offshore and other shipping activities" was responsible for 8.8% of Maersk's revenue in 2008, and posted 25% of the group's profit for this period. The business segment comprises Maersk Tankers (it's technical management business sold to Synergy Marine Group in 2021),[65] Maersk Supply Service, Maersk Drilling, Maersk FPSOs, Maersk LNG and Svitzer.[24]

Brazilian coaster container ship subsidiary with eight ships.[66][67]

Ardent Salvage, a joint operating salvage company formed after the merger between Maersk-operated Svitzer and Crowley-operated TITAN Salvage, is involved in towage, salvage, wreck removal, marine firefighting and other offshore support and is represented in more than 100 ports worldwide. Ardent is based in Houston, Texas.[68]

Bust in Copenhagen

Acquired in 2020, KGH is a European provider of customs and trade solutions, including customs broker services and software applications development.

The company formerly owned a stake in Dansk Supermarked Group which operates stores under the brands: Bilka (hypermarket), Føtex (supermarket, department store), Salling (department store) and Netto (discount supermarket).[24]

Maersk Training provides specialist training to specific industries. The 2010 merger of Maersk Training Centre and Svitzer Safety Services broadened a portfolio of courses to include the maritime, oil and gas, terminals, and wind power industries.

With Headquarters in Svendborg, the MT Group global locations include Aberdeen and Newcastle in the UK, Esbjerg in Denmark, Stavanger in Norway, Rio de Janeiro in Brazil, Chennai & Mumbai in India, Kuala Lampur in Malaysia.[69] New centres include Houston, United States and Dubai, United Arab Emirates which is also the Middle Eastern hub.

Star Air operates 11 leased Boeing 767 cargo aircraft, primarily engaged in long-term contract flying for United Parcel Service (UPS) in Europe.[24] The Maersk corporate aircraft, a Gulfstream 450, is also operated by Star Air.

In August 2013 Freightliner Group announce the acquisition of leading European intermodal rail operator and railway undertaking ERS Railways B.V. from Maersk Line. ERS Railways B.V. is a railway transport company headquartered in Rotterdam, providing cargo transport, mostly ISO shipping containers.

World Robot Olympiad is a robotic competition headquartered in Singapore. Maersk Oil is currently a Gold sponsor of this event.

A group of leading industry players are taking the next step to develop new fuel types and technologies by launching the Mærsk Mc-Kinney Møller Center for Zero Carbon Shipping.[70]

In the total count, the weight of A.P. Møller-Maersk is extraordinarily heavy, as the shipping company accounts for over 80% of the danish top 30 companies' emissions of carbon dioxide from operations, and in the overall calculation, the CO₂ reductions in many of the other companies are therefore balanced by the fact, that Mærsk has increased emissions by 2% since 2019, with a total of 37 million tonnes in 2021, but presented plans to be CO₂ neutral as early as 2040.[71]

Since the Danish climate targets of a 70 percent CO₂ reduction in 2030 are territorial based, emissions from foreign shipping and aviation from Danish ports and airports, and internationally, are not counted, as the responsibility lies with the UN's organizations for aviation (ICAO) and shipping (IMO), therefore the Maersk fleet is not obliged to make reductions,[72] but instead pay through slightly higher taxes from the emissions, to a fund based on taxes from the fleets use of bunker fuel, which will be able to compensate and finance climate measures, a concept developed by the Ministry of Climate and the Danish Maritime Authority.[73][74][75]

In 2008, it was calculated by the DK Group, that the Maersk fleet together released just over one million tonnes of sulfur dioxide SO₂ per year from the fleets use of bunker fuel, and at the time until 2014, when China Shipping Lanes took over by one meter and 20 percent less fuel emissions,[76] the world's largest container ship Emma Mærsk emits SO₂ equivalent to 50 million cars.[77]

"These are figures that are publicly available. But they have probably not really come to light because shipping has been totally unregulated. But when the biggest ships sail out, you have to imagine that 50 million cars will follow," says Jørn Winkler, founder of DK Group. For example, there are filters that remove virtually all sulfur dioxide and nitrogen, but the price of a filter for a large container ship is DKK 25 million. By comparison, Maersk uses approximately DKK 46 billion worth of fuel per year (expenses deducted as a cost in company tax calculations), and "In the past 20 years, it has been possible to remove the particles from the ships' exhaust fumes, but the will to do something is lacking," says Jørn Winkler in 2008.[77]

The Danish Ministry of the Environment has in 2009 initiated an action plan, where the requirement is that SOx and NOx must be reduced using desulfurization plants, the so-called scrubbers, to built into the ships' chimney systems.[78]

As shipping companies in Denmark have a special tax scheme – tonnage tax, which has been in force since 2001 to keep the shipping companies on Danish soil. Tonnage tax means that shipping companies pay a fixed tax or charge per ship, and the amount is thus not affected by the company's profit. With the tonnage tax, the shipping companies avoid the classic corporation tax of 22 percent, which other companies have to pay. The tax scheme means that in 2021, Maersk paid around 4% of a record-breaking earnings of about 16,08 billion USD (117.5 billion Danish kroner) before tax,[79] and expected to be DKK 270 billion in 2022.[80][81] This compared to a deficit of DKK 3 billion in the company's accounts for the first half of 2009. – The first deficit in the group's history since World War II,[82] with an expected deficit for the whole of 2009 of DKK 10.7 billion.[83][84]

Trade unions and labor rights organizations have criticized Maersk's labor practices in different parts of the world.

In El Salvador, Maersk has been accused of maintaining abusive conditions for port drivers. Charges include excessively long shifts, minimal wages and the repression of freedom of association by running union-busting campaigns, including firing and blacklisting at least 100 drivers in 2001.[87][88]

Globalization Monitor, a labor rights group based in Hong Kong, has reported poor labor conditions in Maersk facilities in Dongguan and Qingdao, China. In January and May 2008, respectively, two riots reportedly broke out amongst workers at the Maersk plant in Dongguan in protest of poor working conditions and employment terms. In April 2011, Globalization Monitor stated, "Maersk's plants in China are still far from satisfactory as long as labor and human rights are concerned."[89] This although Danish news articles already in November 2009 brought results from a report made by an external work environment consultant Crecea which stated that the environment on the Maersk factory in Dongguan was above average in China.[90]

In response to a complaint from whistleblower Jerry H. Brown II, the US Government filed suit against Maersk for overcharging for shipments to US forces fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan. In a settlement announced on 3 January 2012, the company agreed to pay $31.9 million in fines and interest, but made no admission of wrongdoing. Brown was entitled to $3.6 million of the settlement.[91]

In August 2010, the US government fined Maersk $3.1 million for violating its embargo on Sudan. "Maersk had a waiver from the US government to deliver US Food Aid into Sudan so the US-flagged ship was in Port Sudan to deliver humanitarian aid," a U.S. government spokesman said, but "the booking systems did not identify cargo that was coming on and off the ship and that could be of violation of the embargo". The US government imposed a trade embargo on Sudan in 1997 due to human rights violations linked to the civil war between the north and south of the African country, and also because of the regime's alleged support of international terrorist groups.[92]

In July 2010, the advocacy group originally highlighted Maersk's ties to a blacklisted Iranian company, Tidewater Middle East Co. The firm suspended operations at several Iranian ports owned by Tidewater Middle East Co. Maersk operates in other Bangladeshi ports and also diverted shipments to Dubai, partnering with other Bangladeshi companies that are not bound by U.S. sanctions.[93][94]

On 28 April 2015, the Marshall Islands-flagged container ship Maersk Tigris, which was not owned by Maersk,[95] was travelling westbound through the Strait of Hormuz. Iranian Revolutionary Guard naval patrol boats contacted the ship, and directed it to proceed into Iranian territorial waters, according to a spokesman for the US Defense Department. When the ship's master declined, one of the Iranian craft fired shots across the bridge of Maersk Tigris. The master complied and proceeded into Iranian waters near Larak Island. The US Navy sent aircraft and a destroyer, USS Farragut, to monitor the situation.[96]

Maersk stated they have agreed to pay an Iranian company $163,000 over a dispute about ten container boxes transported to Dubai in 2005. The court ruling allegedly ordered a fine of $3.6 million.[97]

In October 2010, Maersk plead guilty to 8 counts of failing to provide adequate hours of rest and 1 count of failing to improve the situation.[98][99]

In February 2014, Maersk paid 8.7 million to settle allegations that it Maersk had forged documents on a contract to ship cargo to Afghanistan. The government says they uncovered 277 instances "in which claims verifying receipt of shipments in Afghanistan contained forged signatures." The settlement included no admission of guilt.[100]

In May 2021, a Maersk officer's license was suspended after he was accused of sexual assault including abusive, unwanted, and inappropriate touching in violation of Maersk anti-harassment policy.[101] On 12 October 2021, Maersk suspended five employees for their involvement in the rape of a 19-year-old girl.[102][103]

In June 2022, Hope Hicks, formerly known as "Midshipman X" filed a lawsuit against Maersk, alleging that the company failed to protect her from rampant sexual abuse.[104] In the same month, a second US Merchant Marine Academy (USMMA) student under the alias "Midshipman Y" filed a suit against Maersk, also alleging that the company did not protect her from sexual abuse and violence.[105]

In 2009, it was estimated that the Maersk fleet, per year, with its use of bunker fuel, released sulfur dioxide, SO2, and nitrogen oxides, NOx, into the atmosphere to an extent that, according to Berlingske News, corresponded worldwide to the emissions from nine billion cars (9.000.000.000), with serious health and environmental related outcome.[78][106][107][108][109][110][111][112][113]

The health problem with bunker fuel (heavy fuel oil), a type of oil used in 80 percent of the world's merchant ships in 2008,[77] with a total consumption of 290 million tons per year is, that it has a very high sulfur content, which smokes directly from the chimney, after which it spreads and can make people sick or even be lethal," says Jørgen Brandt, who is a senior researcher at the Department of Atmospheric Environment at Aarhus University. Mærsk is aware of the extent of the problem. Ivan Seistrup, group vice-president in A.P. Møller Mærsk, stated in 2009:

"Among other things, we have entered into close cooperation with Boeing on the development of biofuel for the shipping industry, which will constitute a technological quantum leap. One solution could be to sail on clean biofuel in coastal areas, and then use bunker fuel in the open sea, where it does no harm."[78][106]