Maersk Line won't cut speeds further
SHIPPING: The world’s largest container shipping company, Danish Maersk Line, won’t cut sailing speeds further to reduce fuel costs, even after oil prices jumped 15 percent this year, CEO Eivind Kolding says.
“If we sail much slower, our customers may not be happy with the transit time,” Eivind Kolding told Bloomberg.
“The higher oil price has not made it more likely for us to increase slow- steaming”-
Maersk Line will pass on fuel costs to clients and consider cutting speeds only under “extreme” conditions that would have to match the freight market collapse of 2009, Kolding said.
“We’re making sure that our higher oil costs are being covered by the bunker fuel charges that we add to the freight rates. As long as we’re covered via the surcharge, we won’t slow down any further”, Kolding told Bloomberg.
The biggest container ships use about 300 metric tons of fuel a day at top speed and sailing 10 percent slower cuts fuel use by about 27 percent, according to London-based Drewry Shipping Consultants Ltd.
Maersk Line won’t increase speeds next time there’s a shortage of capacity in the market, Kolding said.
“That would send costs higher and ruin the environmental profile we have,” he said. “So on average, we’re on our top speed now”, Kolding told Bloomberg.
Source: Hellenic
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