Freight News, Logistics, Sea

Maersk to merge Safmarine operations

[ October 3, 2011   //   Chris ]

Maersk Line is to integrate the corporate functions of its sister African container operation Safmarine into its own core business and close the latter’s headquarters in Antwerp. The brand will however be retained, insisted Maersk Liner Business CEO, Eivind Kolding. The move had been driven by the need to ensure management efficiencies and control costs, he said.

Safmarine’s Antwerp head office and regional offices in Antwerp, Shanghai, Dubai, Cape Town, and Mumbai would close, as would the centre support functions currently carried out in Singapore and Cape Town. This could affect 240 people in those locations.
Current Safmarine CEO, Tomas Dyrbye, will be leaving his position and his successor will be announced soon.

But Maersk promised that the Safmarine brand would be strengthened as part of its strategy of providing differentiated customer offerings.
Safmarine’s Multi Purpose Vessel business will not be unaffected by the integration and continue to operate from its base in Antwerp.
Nor does the move affect the two lines’ UK staff in Felixstowe, already part of the Maersk Liner business, who will continue to market the Safmarine brand through the customer service desk “as will the other approximately 1,000 Safmariners in 130 offices around the world,” the line added.