Maersk to restructure, terminate 400 jobs
Danish oil and shipping group A P Moller-Maersk said it would slash about 400 jobs as part of a restructuring of its struggling container shipping division Maersk Line.
The group said in a statement that a key objective of the reorganisation was faster decision-making and that about 250 of the job cuts would be at its Copenhagen headquarters, reported Reuters.
The shipping industry has been hit hard during the global economic downturn as weak demand and excess capacity knocked freight rates to loss-making levels.
Maersk said last month it expected 2012 results "slightly lower" than in 2011, a modest improvement on previous guidance, but below analysts' hopes.
Maersk Line reported a loss of US$599 million in the first quarter. In a stark illustration of the damage caused by excess tonnage in a poor rate environment, Maersk Line’s volume increased by 18 percent while the average freight rate declined by nine percent compared to the first quarter last year.
