Maersk Line

 ( Official Website ) 

Maersk Line is a Danish Realm international container shipping company and the largest operating subsidiary of Maersk, a Danish business conglomerate. Founded in 1928, it is the world's second largest container shipping company by both fleet size and cargo capacity, offering regular services to 374 ports in 116 countries. As of 2024, it employed over 100,000 people. Maersk Line operates over 700 vessels and has a total capacity of about 4.1 million Teus.

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History At the beginning of the 1920s, A.P. Møller considered possibilities of going into liner trade business. The tramp trade, where vessels sailed from port to port depending on the demand, was expected to lose ground to liners in time. On 12 July 1928, the vessel Leise Mærsk left Baltimore on its first voyage from the American East Coast via the Panama Canal to the Far East and back. The cargo consisted of Ford car parts and other general cargo. This heralded the start of Maersk's shipping services. Maersk Line began to grow in 1946 after the Second World War by transporting goods between America and Europe before expanding services in 1950. On 26 April 1956, ocean-borne container transport was introduced with the shipment of a SeaLand container aboard the from Port Newark, New Jersey, to Houston, Texas. In 1967, British carrier P&O was part of the first European initiative, a pooling of liner services from four companies, into the new company Overseas Containers Limited (OCL). Both Sea-land and P&O would later be taken over by Maersk Line as it expanded operations between 1999 and 2005.

In 1999, Maersk entered into an agreement on acquisition of Safmarine Container Lines (SCL) and its related liner activities from South African Marine Corporation Limited (Safmarine). At the time of acquisition, Safmarine Container Lines operated approximately 50 liner vessels and a fleet of about 80,000 containers. It covered a total of ten trades and fully complemented Maersk Line's existing network. Safmarine Container Lines joined the Maersk as an independent unit with its own liner activities.

On 10 December 1999, the A.P. Moller Group acquired the international container business of SeaLand Service Inc. The business was integrated with the A.P. Moller Group companies and as part of the integration, Maersk Line changed its name to Maersk Sealand. The acquisition comprised 70 vessels, almost 200,000 containers as well as terminals, offices and agencies around the world.

In May 2005 Maersk announced plans to purchase P&O Nedlloyd for 2.3 billion . Notes of the P&O Nedlloyd shareholder meeting 27 July 2005 At the time of the acquisition, P&O Nedlloyd had 6% of the global industry market share, and Maersk-Sealand had 12%. The combined company would be about 18% of world market share. Maersk completed the buyout of the company on 13 August 2005, Royal P&O Nedlloyd shares terminated trading on 5 September. In February 2006, the new combined entity adopted the name Maersk Line . At the time the company was folded into A.P. Moller, it owned and chartered a fleet of over 160 vessels. Its container fleet, consisting of owned and leased vessels, had a capacity of . Royal P&O Nedlloyd N.V. had 13,000 employees in 146 countries.

By the end of 2006, Maersk global market share had fallen from 18.2% to 16.8%, at the same time, the next two largest carriers increased their market share, MSC went from 8.6% to 9.5% and CMA CGM from 5.6% to 6.5%.Urquhart, Donald. "Maersk Line's market share declines in 2006" - The Business Times - Marshall Cavendish - 29 January 07 "Liner Shipping Report" - AXS-Alphaliner - January 2007 - (Adobe Acrobat *.PDF document)Kennedy, Frank. "Shipowners order new vessels worth record $105.5b in 2006" - Gulf News - 12 February 2007 In January 2008, Maersk Line announced drastic reorganisational measures. Interview with CEO December 2007

In November 2015, after lower than expected results, Maersk Line announced its decision to lay off 4000 employees by 2017. The group said it would cut its annual administration costs by $250 million over the next two years and would cancel 35 scheduled voyages in the fourth quarter of 2015 on top of four regularly scheduled sailings it canceled earlier in the year.

As of October 2015, Maersk Line along with its subsidiaries such as Seago, MCC, Safmarine and SeaLand, control a combined 18% share of the total container shipping market.

Since 1 December 2017, Hamburg Süd had been part of the company. In 2023, it was announced that Hamburg Süd would be unified with the Maersk brand.

In March 2021, Maersk announced that is aiming to have the world's first carbon neutral vessel launched in 2023, seven years ahead of its original schedule. In August of that year, the company purchased eight methanol powered shipping vessels for $1.4 billion from Hyundai Heavy Industries.

In 2012, Maersk Line paid $31.9 million in fines to the U.S. following a Department of Justice investigation contending that Maersk had "knowingly overcharged the Department of Defense to transport thousands of containers from ports to inland delivery destinations in Iraq and Afghanistan" while under government contract to transport cargo via container ships in support of U.S. troops.

The Red Sea crisis had a significant impact on shipping, from November 2023 onward; in May 2024, Maersk estimated the impact as a capacity loss of 15–20 percent across the merchant shipping industry, based on its Fiscal year second quarter. Maersk also then announced that its ships were rerouting around the Cape of Good Hope to avoid further attacks.

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2M Alliance: Maersk/MSC In 2015, Maersk and Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC) launched the 2M Alliance, a vessel-sharing agreement on the Asia-Europe, trans-Pacific and trans-Atlantic trades. The arrangement, which includes a series of slot exchanges and slot purchases on east–west routes, also involves Maersk Line and MSC taking over a number of charters and operations of vessels chartered to HMM. The 2M Alliance include 185 vessels with an estimated capacity of 2.1 million TEU, deployed on 21 strings. On 25 January 2023, CEO Vincent Clerc of A. P. Moller – Maersk and CEO Soren Toft of MSC announced in a joint press statement that the two shipping lines would terminate the 2M Alliance in January 2025.

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Sustainability In 2011–12, Maersk Line cooperated with the US Navy on testing between 7 and 100% algae biofuel on Maersk Kalmar.Geiver, Luke. BioRefining Magazine, 21 November 2011. Accessed: 13 December 2011. From 2007 to 2014, and mainly due to slow steaming, Maersk Line reduced its CO₂ emissions by 40% or 11 million tonnes, about the same reduction as the rest of Denmark.

Maersk set a goal in December 2018 to be carbon neutral by 2050. In 2017, the company's ships emitted 35.5 million tonnes of CO2e, and it hopes to eliminate that by using biofuels to power its fleet. In 2022, Maersk ordered 12 dual-fuel container ships from Hyundai by 2025, capable of sailing on both fossil bunker fuel and methanol.

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Services Maersk's main operations serve the Asia-Europe and Trans-Atlantic trades, and also between South America and Europe as well as to Africa. The company also introduced the concept of Daily Maersk in 2011, which provided a premium guaranteed service between supply ports of China and European base ports. Despite support from the trade, Maersk Line was forced to cut down services due to oversupply. Recent restructuring of its products have included upgrades to their Asia to Australia, India to West Africa, and China to America routes.

In addition to those main trade routes, Maersk Line also operates many continental trade lines. It operates in its Intra-Asia route through MCC Transport, its European route through Seago Lines, and recently re-launched the SeaLand Service brand for its American trade lanes.

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Fleet As of 2024, the Maersk Line fleet comprises more than 700 vessels (with Hamburg Süd and Safmarine combined) and a multitude of containers corresponding to more than 3.8 million TEU (twenty-foot equivalent unit)

In 2006, the E-class vessel Emma Maersk, was delivered to Maersk Line from Odense Steel Shipyard. It was by far, the largest container ship in the world at the time.

Seven other sister ships have since been built, and in 2011, Maersk ordered 20 even larger container ships from Daewoo, the Triple E class, each with a capacity of 18,000 containers. The first of these Triple E Class ships was delivered on 14 June 2013, and was christened with the name Mærsk Mc-Kinney Møller after the son of the founder of the Maersk Line.

The following list is not complete, due to smaller feeder ships, that not are included as part of the Maersk Line fleet:

+Container ship classes of Maersk Line !Ship class !Built !Capacity (TEU) !Ships in class !Notes
S-class	1997–2000	8,160	3 out of 11	1 ship is scrapped and 7 ships under new owner.
C-class	1999–2002	8,650	5 out of 8	5 ships upgrated to 9,640 TEU, 3 under new owner
L-class III	2001	3,700	6	Laura Maersk renamed to Louis Maersk
Gudrun-class	2004–2006	11,078	6
E-class	2006–2008	14,770	8
M-class II	2007–2009	11,008	6
Edinburgh-class	2010–2011	13,092	13	Long-term charter from Rickmers Group
Triple E-class Gen.1	2013–2015	18,270	20	Mærsk Mc-Kinney Møller was the world’s largest container ship when was delivered in July 2013.
Triple E-class Gen.2	2017–2019	20,568	11	Madrid Maersk was the world’s largest container ship when was delivered in April 2017.
H-class	2017–2019	15,226	11
V-class	2018–2019	3,600	7
Laura Mærsk	2023	2,100	1	First ship in fleet to run on methanol.
A-Class III	2024–	16,000	8 out of 18	First Ship class to run on methanol.
TBD	2024–2025	8,000	8	To be built by Yangzijiang Shipbuilding.
TBD	2025	17,000	6	To be built by Hyundai Heavy Industries.
TBD	2026–2027	9,000	6 /ref>
TBD	2027	16,000	10	To be built by Hanwha Ocean
TBD	2027	16,000	10	To be built by Yangzijiang Shipbuilding.
TBD	2027–2029	17,000	10	To be built by Yangzijiang Shipbuilding.
TBD	2028	16,000	12	To be built by New Times Shipbuilding.
TBD	2028–2030	9,000	2	To be built by Yangzijiang Shipbuilding.
TBD	2028–2030	15,000	12	To be built 6 from Hanwha Ocean and 6 from New Times Shipbuilding.
TBD	2028–2030	17,000	6	To be built by Yangzijiang Shipbuilding.

+Former container ship classes of Maersk Line !Ship class !Built !Capacity (TEU) !Ships in class !Notes
A-class I	1974–1976	1,984	9	All 9 scrapped between 1999-2015
MV Shughart	1980–1983	3,000	6+1	3 ships rebuilt by the United States Navy, and 4 ships were scrapped
L-class II	1983–1985	3,300	4	All 4 ships is scrapped
M-class I	1988–1991	4,300	12 /ref>
K-class	1995–1997	6,418	6	2 ships are scrapped, and 4 ships under new owner.
A-class II	2002–2004	8,272	6	All 6 ship sold to new owners

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Accidents and incidents

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Maersk Alabama On 8 April 2009, the container ship Maersk Alabama was seized by pirates in the Indian Ocean at a distance of southeast of Eyl, Somalia. The siege ended after a rescue effort by the United States Navy on 12 April.

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Emma Maersk On 1 February 2013, the container ship Emma Maersk suffered a damaged stern Bow thruster and took on so much water in the Suez Canal that she became unmaneuverable. Tugboat, anchors and the wind took her to Port Said to offload 13,500 containers, drain her and be investigated by divers. She had not been in danger of sinking.

On 15 February 2013, the Maersk Line confirmed that she was about to leave Port Said under tow to a yard for further assessment and repair. On 25 February she reached the yard of Palermo, Sicily, where she was scheduled to stay for four months. The flooded engine was disassembled, repaired and assembled, and in August 2013, she was in service again after a DKK 250 million (roughly US$44.5m) repair.

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Maersk Honam On 6 March 2018, a major fire broke out in the No.3 forward cargo hold of Maersk Honam while the vessel was in the Arabian Sea about southeast of Salalah, Oman, en route from Singapore to Suez. It took over three days to get the fire under control and the ship continued to burn for several more weeks. The ship was salvaged and the damaged parts of the vessel were rebuilt. Retaining its original IMO number, the ship was renamed Maersk Halifax before entering into service again in August 2019.

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Maersk Roubaix On 21 December 2021, the container ship Maersk Roubaix suffered from engine issues and became adrift in the Mediterranean Sea from Malta, while it was en route to the port of Algeciras in Spain. A tugboat was dispatched to assist.

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Mumbai Maersk On 2 February 2022, the container ship Mumbai Maersk ran aground near the Port of Bremerhaven in Germany. A first attempt to tow the container ship into deeper water using two multi-purpose vessels and five tugboats failed. On 4 February, the ship was refloated with the help of eight tugboats. A vessel assessment was done when she arrived at the Port of Bremerhaven.

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Maersk Hangzhou On 31 December 2023, Houthis attacked from smaller ships, while traversing the Red Sea. Shots were fired at the vessel and Naval boarding attempts were made while a private security team aboard defended the container ship. The aircraft carrier and its helicopters, along with destroyer , responded to Maersk Hangzhous distress call. The U.S. ships, part of Operation Prosperity Guardian, sunk three of the four Houthi militant ships, killing 10 aboard.

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Maersk Sentosa On 9 July 2024, the Houthis attacked the American-flagged Maersk Sentosa in the Gulf of Aden.

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Maersk Frankfurt On 22 July 2024, one person died in an severe blaze onboard Maersk Frankfurt, off Goa in the Indian coast.

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Maersk Shekou On 30 August 2024, the Singaporean-flagged container ship, Maersk Shekou collided with the Australian sail training ship in Fremantle Harbour. Two men were injured and Leeuwin II suffered "catastrophic damage".

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See also

• Maersk
• List of largest container ships

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Notes

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Bibliography

• Rose George (2025). 9780805092639, Metropolitan Books / Henry Holt and Co.. ISBN 9780805092639
• (2025). 9788763002134, Copenhagen Business School Press. ISBN 9788763002134
• Ove Hornby (1988). 9788756923583, J. H. Schultz Grafisk. ISBN 9788756923583
• Lars Jensen (2025). 9788799726929, Vespucci Maritime Publishing. ISBN 9788799726929
• (2025). 9781107037816, Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9781107037816
• (2025). 9788700788565, Gyldendal Business. ISBN 9788700788565
• Norman L. Middlemiss (2025). 9781871128260, Shield Publications. ISBN 9781871128260

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External links

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