AP Moeller-Maersk A/S’s container-terminal arm may invest in rail, truck or barge operators in China and India as Asian trade growth outpaces demand in the US and Europe.
The company is considering acquisitions that will allow it to haul goods to ports, APM Terminals CEO Kim Fejfer told reporters in Singapore yesterday. He declined to elaborate further on possible targets.
APM Terminals also plans to invest in Yangtze River ports as economic growth in rural China spurs cargo traffic along the nation’s longest river.
Sea cargo traffic in China, Vietnam, India and other emerging markets may grow 7 percent annually until 2015 compared with a 2 percent expansion in more mature economies, Fejfer said.
“China, Vietnam and India are the markets that we would like to increase our foothold in,” APM Terminals’ Asia-Pacific head Martin Christiansen said.
The company is looking at “a number of interesting projects” along the Yangtze, he said.
Global container port traffic will likely rise about 5 percent a year for the next five years, according to the terminal operator. Maersk also runs the world’s largest container shipping line.
The company, which operates more than 50 terminals in 34 countries, increased the number of containers it handled in the first nine months of this year by 3 percent to 23.5 million 20-foot boxes. It is also currently developing seven new projects.
Separately, Maersk and 14 other shipping companies including Taiwan’s Evergreen Marine Corp (長榮海運) and Yang Ming Marine -Transport Corp (陽明海運) have agreed to seek rate increases of US$400 per 40-foot box on Asia-US west coast routes next year as the rebounding global economy revives cargo demand.
The planned increase is part of voluntary guidelines covering talks for contracts generally starting around May 1, the Transpacific Stabililzation Agreement (TSA) said in a statement on its Web site on Friday.
The shipping group, which has limited antitrust immunity, also recommended a peak-season surcharge of US$400 per box.
“Two strong quarters in the transpacific — a highly competitive freight market with very thin margins — still do not fully offset two years of heavy losses,” Y.M. Kim, chairman of the TSA and chief executive officer of Seoul-based Hanjin Shipping Co, said in the statement. “We said last year that we would not seek to recover all our losses in one year.”
Asia-US shipping volumes may rise 12 percent this year, the TSA said. Capacity has increased 19 percent since November last year, the group said, citing AXS Alphaliner data. In the first three quarters of the year, 15 new and restored services began sailing, including three new operators, it said.
Shipping lines also face rising costs for labor, container handling, inland transport and for buying and leasing cargo boxes amid a global shortage, the group said. The appreciation of Asian currencies has also hit shipping lines that charge rates in dollars, it said.
Other lines in the TSA are Neptune Orient Lines Ltd’s APL Ltd unit, China Shipping Container Lines Co (中海集裝箱運輸), CMA-CGM SA, China Cosco Holdings Co (中國遠洋控股), Hapag Lloyd AG, Hyundai Merchant Marine Co, Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha Ltd, Mediterranean Shipping Co, Nippon Yusen KK, Orient Overseas (International) Ltd (東方海外國際) and Israel Corp’s Zim Integrated Shipping Services Ltd.
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