Off the wire
• 1st LD-Writethru: China responds to Pentagon chief's speech regarding S. China Sea  • Commission to protect copyright of Beijing's ACG industry  • 11 mln children's lives at stake as El Nino strengthens: UNICEF  • Egypt releases detained journalist  • Hollande to participate in Malta migration meeting Wednesday: Elysee  • Infantino "to withdraw" the FIFA election if Platini stands  • Myanmar announces 125 more elected parliament representatives  • Vagrants are not burdens, minister tells civil affairs workers  • Chinese Premier stresses reforms, restructuring  • HK company launches innovative system to solve water shortage  
You are here: 　 Home

Maersk eyes partnership with Chinese firms in overseas investment

Xinhua, November 10, 2015 Adjust font size:

Danish shipping and oil giant Maersk Group is looking to work with Chinese firms in investing overseas as the conglomerate seeks opportunities in the Belt and Road Initiative, a China-proposed infrastructure and trade network, a company official said Tuesday.

The group's terminal unit signed a memorandum of understanding with China's Qingdao Port Group last week to jointly invest in a new port terminal in Vado Ligure, Italy due to open in 2018.

The project is a good example of Maersk's partnership with Chinese firms in the Belt and Road Initiative, which will lead to a lot of new infrastructure projects in the countries to the west of China, said Tim Smith, chairman of Maersk China and chief representative of Maersk Group North Asia, at a press briefing.

Details on the investment have not yet been disclosed.

"We're very keen to try to partner with Chinese companies in those new infrastructure projects," he said.

The group saw its businesses struggling due to low demand in world trade. The Belt and Road is "the only big scheme we can see where political leaders are trying to do something to develop more demand," Smith told reporters.

Hit by lower container freight rates and oil prices, the group earned 778 million U.S. dollars in profits in the third quarter of 2015, a decline of nearly 50 percent from 1.5 billion U.S. dollars in the same period of last year.

Asia-Europe trade has gone down 5 percent so far this year and is expected to see no improvements for the rest of 2015, pushing the company to scale back ship orders and lay off 4,000 employees to keep costs down, Smith noted.

However, Maersk is still exploring opportunities in terminals, towage operations and the ship building business in China, he said.

The group's terminal unit announced last week it will set up a joint venture with China's Qingdao Port International to develop a new multipurpose terminal at the port to meet the country's fast-growing grain import demands. APM Terminals of Maersk will hold a 20 percent share in the terminal.

"We're much on the lookout for new investment opportunities in China in this (terminal) market. We still think China will be a strong market for trade for decades to come," Smith said.

He saw opportunities in investing in terminals related to bulk and grain trade, as well as in the towage business for a growing number of liquified natural gas terminals in China.

Maersk's towage unit is in discussions to form a new joint venture in Qingdao and is exploring cooperation in six other ports around the Chinese coast, according to Smith.

The group is also ready to continue its partnership with Chinese ship yards, having booked 20 vessels from Chinese ship builders in the past 14 months, he said.

The Maersk Group has about 14,000 employees and more than 100 offices in China. Its revenue in China has roughly doubled since 2009, which is the biggest origin market for its container shipping business. Endi