‘We would rather go from what we do today straight to a CO2 neutral type of fuel,’ says Maersk’s Chief Executive Soren Skou.
His comments came during the presentation of Maersk’s Q3 2020 results, which saw the company’s ocean segment achieve an increase in profitability from $511 million to $1.8 billion, despite a quarterly 3.6% decrease in volumes. Skou said that the company is anticipating that Q4 will be a stronger quarter than Q3.
Maersk’s Chief Executive also noted that M&A activity is not on the cards for the company in the shipping sector. Following the purchase of Hamburg Sud back in 2017, ‘we have no plans to acquire in the maritime space,’ he said.
In response to a question about Maersk’s strategy in relation to shipping’s decarbonisation, Skou noted that: ‘We are very much aware of the technology risks for all ships at this time.
‘We would ideally like to figure out what the future fuels should be and then start building the ships that will fit that type of fuel when we need them.’
However, Skou was clear that LNG is not an option that is under consideration by Maersk.
‘We don’t believe that LNG is going to play a big role for us as a transition fuel because it is still a fossil fuel and we would rather go from what we do today straight to a CO2 neutral type of fuel,’ he said.
‘That will be years out in the future I suspect,’ he added.
