Continued Low Oil Prices News

Nils Smedegaard Andersen chief executive officer of A.P. Moeller-Maersk A/S said the Container volumes have picked up this year after the market suffered from sluggish growth and overcapacity in 2015, reports Bloomberg. He said 2016 beginning looked a little bit better and expected the Asia to Europe business to develop better this year. Maersk’s container line, the world’s largest, suffered last year from a toxic cocktail of too many vessels just as global trade sagged. While the industry still needs to address overcapacity, the demand side looks better, Andersen said. In 2015, Nils Andersen was expecting another year of about 3% to 4% demand growth. Instead, it came in at 1.

Maersk Oil, part of Danish conglomerate A.P. Møller-Maersk A/S, will cut 10% to 12% of its workforce as part of a plan to reduce operating costs by a fifth by the end of next year, amid weak oil prices. The oil business of Danish conglomerate sets to cut 1,250 jobs this year. The planned cuts are part of a bid to reduce operating costs by 20 percent this year. The job cuts at Maersk Oil come just a few days after its parent company issued a profit warning, blaming a downturn in world trade. Parent company A.P. Møller-Maersk on Friday warned that a weaker market for Maersk Line, the world's largest container shipping company and a global trade bellwether, would weigh on annual profits. A.P.