Maersk

Coordinates: 55°41′14.81″N 12°35′53.28″E / 55.6874472°N 12.5981333°E / 55.6874472; 12.5981333

A.P. Moller–Maersk Group (Danish: A.P. Møller–Mærsk A/S, Danish pronunciation: [ˈæːˀ ˈpʰeːˀ mølɐˈmæɐ̯sg̊]), also known as Maersk, is a Danish business conglomerate. A.P. Møller – Maersk Group has activities in a variety of business sectors, primarily within the transportation and energy sectors. It has been the largest container ship operator and supply vessel operator in the world since 1996.

A.P. Møller – Maersk Group is based in Copenhagen, Denmark, with subsidiaries and offices in more than 135 countries worldwide and around 89,000 employees. It ranked 148 on the Forbes Global 2000 list for 2015.

History

A.P. Møller – Maersk Group started as the shipping company Dampskibsselskabet Svendborg (Danish for "Svendborg Steamship Company") founded by captain Peter Mærsk-Møller and his son Arnold Peter Møller (2 October 1876 - June 1965) in Svendborg, April 1904. A.P. Møller had four children, two by each of his two wives Chastine Estelle Roberta Mc-Kinney and Norwegian-born Pernille Ulrikke Amalie Nielsen. A.P. Møller's second child was Arnold Mærsk McKinney Møller (13 July 1913 – 16 April 2012).

Mærsk Mc-Kinney Møller

Arnold Mærsk Mc-Kinney Møller (13 July 1913 – 16 April 2012) was a Danish shipping magnate.

Personal life

Mærsk Mc-Kinney Møller was the son of a Danish father, Arnold Peter Møller, founder of the A.P. Moller – Maersk Group, and an American mother, Chastine Estelle Roberta (née McKinney) Møller. Mærsk married his high-school sweetheart, Emma Neergaard Rasmussen in 1940 and remained married to her until her death in 2005. They had three daughters: Leise (born 1941), Kirsten, Mrs Olufsen (born 1944), and Ane, Mrs Uggla (born 1948). He ranked 557th wealthiest person in the world (2007) on the Forbes list with an estimated fortune of 142 billion Danish kroner which made him the wealthiest person in Denmark until his death.

Business activities

Møller became a partner in the A.P. Moller – Maersk Group in 1940. When Denmark was occupied by Germany during World War II Møller went into exile in the United States and ran the family business from New York until his return to Denmark in 1947. Møller became CEO and chairman on his father's death in 1965. In 1970, Møller became the first non-American member of the board of IBM, a position he held until 1984.

Maersk Line

Maersk Line is the global container division and the largest operating unit of the A.P. Moller – Maersk Group, a Danish business conglomerate. It is the world's largest container shipping company having customers through 374 offices in 116 countries. It employs approximately 7,000 sea farers and approximately 25,000 land-based people. Maersk Line operates over 600 vessels and has a capacity of 2.6 million TEU. The company was founded in 1928.

History

At the beginning of the 1920s, A.P. Moller considered possibilities of going into liner trade business. The tramp trade, where vessels sailed from port to port depending on the demand, was expected to lose ground to liners in time. On 12 July 1928, the vessel LEISE MÆRSK left Baltimore on its first voyage from the American East Coast via the Panama Canal to the Far East and back. The cargo consisted of Ford car parts and other general cargo. This heralded the start of Maersk's shipping services. Maersk Line began to grow in 1946 after the Second World War by transporting goods between America and Europe before expanding services in 1950. On 26 April 1956, ocean-borne container transport was introduced with the shipment of a Sea-Land container aboard the IDEAL X from Port Newark, New Jersey, to Houston, Texas. In 1967, Anglo carrier P&O was part of the first European initiative, a pooling of liner services from four companies, into the new company Overseas Containers Limited (OCL). Both Sea-land and P&O would later be taken over by Maersk Line as it expanded operations between 1999 and 2005.

Estelle Mærsk

Estelle Mærsk is a container ship owned and run by the Mærsk Line. She was, in 2009, the largest ever built by terms of gross tonnage. Estelle Mærsk has a capacity of 11,000 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEU), including around 1,000 40 feet (12 m) reefer containers, though a maximum capacity of 13,500 TEU is claimed. She is identical to the seven other ships in the Maersk PS-Class, the first built of which was Emma Maersk.

The Estelle Mærsk is 1,302.5 feet (397.0 m) long and has a gross register tonnage of 151,687. Her beam (width) is 183.7 feet (56.0 m). She is powered by a Wärtsilä diesel engine, assisted by a waste heat recovery system, that can produce between 80,000 and 90,000 kilowatts of power. A coat of environmentally safe silicone paint is used on the hull below the waterline, reducing drag and thus increasing speed and saving up to 1,200 tons of fuel per year. Estelle Mærsk was built by Odense Steel Shipyard of Denmark in 2006. Mærsk claim that these technologies, and staying below 10 knots whenever possible, reduce emissions by around 25% compared to other ships.