[280111.EN.SEA] Maersk Chief : Environment Biggest Challenge Line Faces

NILS ANDERSEN, CEO of shipping giant AP Moller-Maersk, says the environment is the biggest challenge the company faces, he told London's Daily Mail in an extended interview.

"We're working intensely on environmental matters, which we expect over time to be more important to the world and, hopefully, also to our customers," he told the newspaper that focuses on the women's market. 

Recent studies have revealed that shipping is environmentally dirtier than previously thought, said the newspaper. The UN claims the industry is responsible for 4.5 per cent of global carbon emissions. So Maersk is redesigning containerships and making them a further 25 per cent environmentally clean and efficient by 2020.

The new green ships will have redesigned hulls and will be painted with high-tech paint to reduce drag in the water, though they will be fatter and slower. New navigation systems will direct them to the areas of least winds and waves.

It is significant that Mr Andersen is putting his new green ships on what he regards as the most important new areas of business in shipping. The main traffic is between the US and west Europe and Asia, but the areas of most potential are Africa and Latin America.

The former's lack of good ports also gives the company the potential for more business - building ports.

The 52-year-old former head of Carlsberg - he says he still misses the free beer - has transformed the group's fortunes after three years in charge and turned it into Denmark's most profitable company.

The company, he said, has cut layers of management and given the various businesses the power to make more decisions autonomously.

In doing so he has removed GBP1.3 billion (US$2.02 billion) in costs out of Maersk Line operations, the largest unit in the conglomerate.

"Originally the group management structure was made out of countries, regions and head office. The regions were very powerful and heavily staffed. What we did for all practical purposes was to eliminate the regions. This brought us closer to customers and made decision-making easier," Mr Andersen said.

Source : HKSG, 20.01.11