After a conclusion by Alphaliner that Maersk is losing ground, the company’s COO Søren Toft replied disagreed. Mr. Toft noted that the company has experienced steady growth and it uses its tonnage better.
According to Alphaliner, Maersk has lost ground worldwide, while its rivals have gained. It also added that its total container market share was 1.5% less the last year, after the acquisition of Hamburg Süd.
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In fact, Alphaliner indicated that Maerk’s total capacity after Hamburg Süd reduced 2.6%, reaching 4.02 million teu, while last year the amount was 4.11 million teu.
Commenting on these findings, Maerk’s COO Søren Toft said to ShippingWatch that he does not agree. He specifically said that now the company is using its tonnage better, while it has also faced growth and maintains the target for 4 mil. teu capacity.
Søren Toft explained that Maersk has maintained its customer base from Hamburg Süd, which shows a better use of fleet.
These findings come at a time when reports say that Maersk and IBM are facing problems with their blockchain project, Tradelens. Namely, Maersk and IBM are reportedly struggling as only one other carrier has joined in, Pacific International Lines (PIL).
The reason for this is the fact that Maersk’s rivals are not to keen about entering the platform on unequal terms.
In order for this system to work, the shipping giant’s competitors would act as ‘trust anchors’, running blockchain nodes. In addition, shippers of goods are using a number of carriers and freight-forwarders, while the platform suggests the handling of cargo across all of them.
This means that Tradelens needs more carriers. This is the opinion of Marvin Erdly, head of TradeLens at IBM Blockchain, who said that the system needs more carriers, as otherwise there will be no product.
