General

In order to attract larger shippers, Maersk is expected to announce that from November 1st, it will only handle the cargo of direct shippers, excluding freight forwarders.

Maersk provides a single platform that allows shippers to book goods door-to-door, claiming that this will simplify transportation and provide benefited cargo owners (BCO) with greater supply chain visibility.

However, major freight forwarding companies, including Kuehne+Nagel, currently provide carriers with most of the cargo portfolio services. However, it is reported that from Asia to Europe, freight forwarders charge a contract price of approximately US$4,000/FEU, and then resell them to customers at US$20,000/FEU. It is said in the industry that Maersk is retaliating against freight forwarders.

"This means Maersk lost $16,000, so the company wants to punish freight forwarders," an industry veteran claimed.

Maersk wants to exclude freight forwarders from stopping cooperation and only serve the direct shipper-the owner?

Otto Schacht, the global director of K+N’s shipping department, declined to comment on rates and their relationship with the company, but Maersk said: “Freight forwarders have always been and will continue to be one of our largest customer groups for shipping.” However, Maersk added that it hopes to improve the reliability of the supply chain in a "special market environment where the demand we currently see far exceeds supply."

Due to the current market conditions, "We have notified some customers that we will not be able to meet all their expectations, especially on specific routes, such as Asia to Europe and Asia to North America. We have seen unprecedented congestion and disruption." However, , They can still conduct business on more than 40 other available trade routes. "

James Hookham of the Global Shippers Forum (GSF) believes that some shippers will be winners, and he believes that Maersk may launch a new trading platform to develop an integrated approach to its supply chain.

"The bad omen has been for a while," he explained. "With the development of trading platforms, it has always been possible for shipping companies to directly provide freight capacity to shippers." But the question is whether some BCOs are willing to trade directly with Maersk. Hookham said: "We have always had the option of dealing directly with shipping companies, but shippers prefer personalized service."

The Digital Container Shipping Association (Digital Container Shipping Association) was established to standardize digital exchanges. Much of the work outlined by the association "may seem abstract and remote, but it will enable alliances to pass on business to each other."

Maersk can provide door-to-door prices, which will be "a very exciting prospect for bulk shippers, but smaller shippers may feel that they will be left behind." Maersk’s move has played a very important role in these smaller cargo owners in terms of price negotiation with shipping companies and providing them with LCL service. In addition to the bargaining power with shipping companies, the more detailed services provided by freight forwarders are also currently not available to shipping companies.

Hookham also warned: “Regulators need to act in a timely manner because we don’t want shipping companies to become the Facebook or Amazon of the transportation industry. Data) should not be part of this initiative.

In fact, after a number of related acquisitions and investments in July 2019, Maersk finally set the development goals for the inland transportation business and provided full-chain services to shippers. At that time, Maersk CEO Søren Skou said in an interview with The Wall Street Journal that he hoped that within two years or so, the company's inland transportation and marine transportation accounted for close to 50% of its revenue. Some experts said that directly providing full-chain services to shippers instead of traditional freight forwarders is a way for large shipping companies to achieve value-added.

According to Shi Suoren: "Maersk is transforming to provide comprehensive end-to-end solutions for customers' supply chains. While promoting the growth of the maritime business and the market, we will accelerate the rapid growth of non-maritime business."

As early as September 2018, Maersk announced a new round of strategic adjustments. Starting from January 1, 2019, Damco's supply chain management services and Maersk Line’s marine products will be integrated, aiming to provide cargo owners Provide a full range of logistics solutions. In May 2019, Maersk announced again that in order to accelerate the development of logistics and service businesses, starting from August 1, 2019, Maersk Terminals’ APM Terminals Inland Services will be integrated into Maersk’s logistics and service business ( Maersk Logistics&Services). At that time, Shi Suoren said that he planned to complete the transformation of Maersk by 2021.