Maersk says no plans to leave Kaohsiung harbor

Maersk Taiwan Ltd (台灣快桅) -- a subsidiary of the Denmark-based Maersk Sealand shipping company -- yesterday denied a local Chinese-language media report that it may move its transshipment operation center from southern Kaohsiung to Shanghai.

Jens Eskelaund, Maersk's communication director in Beijing, told Bloomberg News that such a plan may not work under the current circumstances.

"Foreign shipping companies aren't allowed to conduct transshipment business under Chinese laws," Eskelaund was quoted as saying in response to a report in the Economic Daily News (經濟日報).

Staff at the company in Taiwan quoted managing director Neils Hansen as saying the company had no plans to pull out of Kaohsiung.

Hansen refused to comment on the matter, but a member of his staff questioned the report, saying, "How could it be possible for a company that has invested billions of NT dollars in Kaohsiung to leave?"

The newspaper report said that President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) had ordered the Cabinet to do everything it could to reverse the company's decision, if such a decision had been made.

After merging with US' Sealand Service Inc in 1993, Maersk Sealand -- a division of A.P. Moller Group -- became the world's biggest shipping company.

According to the Kaohsiung Harbor Bureau (高雄港務局), Maersk leases four terminals in the harbor. Last year it shipped approximately 1.36 million containers -- 18 percent of the harbor's total volume.

Contracts for two of the terminals will end in October next year, while the contracts on the remaining two terminals will terminate in May 2005, the bureau's director, Huang Ching-tern (黃清藤), said.

"Next to Evergreen Marine Corp (長榮海運), Maersk is the second biggest shipping company in the harbor," Huang said, adding that the company hasn't said anything about discontinuing its contracts.

Huang said that during a courtesy meeting on Wednesday, Hansen had not only expressed his satisfaction with the harbor's performance, but also set a goal of shipping 1.42 million containers this year.

Huang said he was confident that the harbor would continue developing and would remain competitive compared with Shanghai.

Kaohsiung harbor is the fourth busiest port in the world, behind Hong Kong, Singapore and Korea's Busan.

Huang said that he expects transshipment volume to increase in the near future, although the volume grew only 1.54 percent last year from the year before.

The harbor, moreover, is expecting rapid growth after direct links are established with China, Huang said. The links are transportation, trade, and post.

"All preparations are complete. [We are] awaiting the government's relaxation [of the ban on direct links]," he said.