, after three of the most profitable years in the history of container shipping, a small number of acquisition-conscious shipping companies are well funded and are increasing their land and air transport capabilities.
, however, behind the acquisition boom, the strategies of various operators are not consistent. Although Maersk has been building its end-to-end integrator model through acquisitions, HapagLloyd said it will focus more on end-of-life investments. Other companies such as Mediterranean Shipping Co. and CMA CGM have invested in so-called neighboring businesses in the transportation field, but this has not stopped the two companies from entering the non-freight field.
According to data from maritime consulting firm Drewry, after the container shipping industry expects to make an operating profit of US $290 billion in 2022 and another US $150 billion this year, these expanding shipping companies mainly located in Europe have the ability to actively carry out mergers and acquisitions.
Maersk integration
Maersk has also expanded its business into the air cargo market, which has dropped from stratospheric pricing, which has dropped from the sky-high price of 16 US dollars per kilogram in the trans-Pacific spot price in December 2021, more than five times the market price at the end of 2019. The company acquired Senators International, which focuses on air cargo, and leased or purchased cargo planes. By 2024, the fleet of Maersk Air cargo operations will increase to 15 aircraft. But Maersk's aviation ambitions are not just about diversifying the cargo structure.
Since 2017, the ambitions of these integrators have expanded, in part because Maersk has a better understanding of the complexity of controlling end-to-end logistics, even if the trajectory is not simple. It is envisaged that all transportation links from the origin of the finished product to the destination can be controlled-whether through ownership or seamless contracts within Maersk's digital parallel freight tracks-have been tried before. But Maersk believes the environment is different this time. The convergence of new technology and investment, the appetite of some western shippers for more sophisticated inventory controls, and the growing need to reduce carbon emissions all require something new.
Despite the decline in organic growth, Maersk's new chief executive, Vincent Clerc, said he was encouraged that the top 200 customers targeted by the company spent a larger share of their logistics services, contributing 4 per cent to organic growth. The target shipper group accounted for 46% of logistics service revenue in the fourth quarter, compared with 43% in the same period last year.
Ditlev, president of Maersk Pacific region, said at a press conference on February 6 Blicher that Maersk, as the carrier within Asia, is also the largest carrier in the largest and highly dispersed marine trade. Complementary with LF logistics, Maersk occupies a dominant position in the export integration of western consumer markets purchased from Asia. Maersk admits that as the growth of middle-class consumption in China and elsewhere has changed the flow of goods, it needs greater control over more nodes of origin and destination, including disassembly centers in Asia.
considering the uniqueness of the origin flow of various Asian countries and the large scale of the intermediate market, this is a challenging construction.
this does not necessarily require Maersk to have warehouses or trucks, as long as "technology can be a network and (assets) can be controlled, so we can control the results," said the regional director of Maersk Pacific Logistics Services. The means to gain greater control overseas is not cheap, but airlines have never had so much money to invest in. There are still many deals waiting for you to do.
Forwardernet.com