A.P. Moeller Fleet Grows 12%

A.P. Moeller's fleet grew by 12 percent in 2000, maintaining the company's position as the world's biggest container operator, according to French shipping consultancy BRS Alphaliner. Moeller subsidiaries Maersk Sealand and South Africa based Safmarine operate a combined fleet of 297 ships totaling 694,000 teu, a progression of almost 12 percent in 12 months," BRS Alphaliner said in its annual listing of the top 100 liner operators. "This performance has been obtained through internal growth only. A capacity of 74,000 teu has been added during the 12-month period," BRS said in the listing, published on its website on Monday. The Moeller fleet would pass 700,000 teu in January. The combined fleets of the 100 largest operators have risen 8.5 percent over the past 12 months to reach 5.234 million teu on January 1. British-Dutch shipper P&O Nedlloyd was listed as the second-biggest global container liner after a 22.4 percent fleet increase last year to 343,000 teu. - (Reuters)