Danish shipping and oil giant Maersk Group is interested to work with Chinese firms in overseas investments as it seeks opportunities in the country’s Belt and Road initiative, a company official said during a press briefing on Tuesday, Nov. 10.
The Xinhua News Agency reported that Maersk's terminal unit signed a memorandum of understanding with Qingdao Port Group last week for a joint investment in a new port terminal in Vado Ligure, Italy, which will open in 2018.
Tim Smith, chairman of Maersk China and chief representative of Maersk Group North Asia, said that the project, an example of Maersk's partnership with Chinese firms in the Belt and Road initiative, will bring in new infrastructure projects from the countries to the west of China.
"We're very keen to try to partner with Chinese companies in those new infrastructure projects," Smith said.
The Belt and Road is "the only big scheme we can see where political leaders are trying to do something to develop more demand," Smith added.
The conglomerate, which was hit by lower container freight rates and oil prices, earned $778 million in profits in the third quarter of 2015, a 50-percent drop from $1.5 billion in the same period last year.
Smith noted that Asia-Europe trade dropped 5 percent this year with no signs of improvements for the rest of 2015, which drove the company to reduce ship orders and lay off 4,000 employees to keep costs down. He added that Maersk is still exploring opportunities in terminals, towage operations and the ship building business in China.
Last week, the firm's terminal unit announced a plan to set up a joint venture with Qingdao Port International for the development of a new multipurpose terminal at the port to address the fast-growing grain import demands in the country. Maersk APM Terminals will hold a 20-percent share in the terminal.
Smith said that the company is keen on investing in terminals for bulk and grain trade, as well as in the towage business for a growing number of liquefied natural gas terminals in China.
Maersk's towage unit is currently holding talks to form a new joint venture in Qingdao as it is planning to establish cooperation in six other ports around the Chinese coast.
The group is also ready to partner with Chinese shipyards, after booking 20 vessels from Chinese shipbuilders in the past 14 months.