From Bloomberg via gCaptain, Feb,12:
The world’s biggest container shipping line is trying to stop
customers like Amazon.com Inc. and Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. from
becoming competitors in just a few years’ time.
“Amazon is a threat if we don’t do a good job for them,” Soren Skou,
the Chief Executive Officer of A.P. Moller Maersk A/S, said in a phone
interview. “If we don’t do our job well, then there’s no doubt that big,
strong companies like Amazon will look into whether they can do better
themselves.”
Shares of FedEx Corp. and UPS Inc. dropped last week on a report that
Amazon plans to handle more deliveries to its customers’ doorsteps. The
question the maritime industry is now asking itself is to what extent
the online retailer will also try to take greater control of
transportation of shipments bound for Amazon warehouses. For now, those
tend to be handled by Maersk and companies like it.
Taking greater control of shipments would give Seattle-based Amazon
more flexibility and help it avoid possible congestion in its
warehouses.
Skou is betting his strategy of combining the Maersk conglomerate’s
container activities — including a shipping line, a port operator and a
freight-forwarding service provider — will offer Amazon and others like
it the integrated supply chain they need.
It’s not just a question of a smooth delivery, said Skou. Giant
retailers like Amazon also want better information about shipments to
manage supply chains as effectively as possible. Maersk is rolling out a
new digitization strategy to modernize an industry in which bookings
often still take place by phone. Last month, it formed a joint venture
with IBM to develop the use of blockchain technology to manage and track
cross-border trade.
“Amazon is not interested in phones and email — they want to be
hooked up electronically and digitally so the business transacts on its
own,” Skou said. “This matches our new strategy: they want end-to-end
container shipping and we want to offer the whole service.”...MORE
