Maersk is investing new resources in e-commerce. The Danish group has announced that it has acquired US logistics company Visible Supply Chain Management and signed another agreement to purchase Dutch company Europe Holding.
Both companies are focused on B2C logistics. Maersk Ocean & Logistics CEO Vincent Clerc confirmed that Maersk has decided to acquire strong e-commerce logistics capabilities that will expand and strengthen their current supply chain services and create growth opportunities.
Mr. Clerc pointed out that these acquisitions provide the big carrier with a substantial platform for growth in e-commerce, as their investment in digitization and integration will create significant synergies and make a big difference to their customers’ ability to sell effectively across multiple channels.
The Danish group intends to develop its capacity in the e-commerce logistics segment in the world’s largest online sales markets: Europe, North America and Asia. Visible SCM handles around 200,000 orders per day and delivers 200 million parcels per year, while the Dutch B2C Europe makes over 35 million deliveries per year.
Maersk closed the first half of the year with a net profit of $6.5 billion. Revenue for the second quarter was 58% higher than the same period in 2020, at $14.2 billion, $11 billion of which came from the container shipping sector.
At 6.68 million TEUs, traffic volumes were up 15% on the previous year. The carrier’s average tariff rose 59% to 1519 dollars per TEU.
Translation by Giles Foster
