Hi Quartz members,
How much the world relies on shipping was brought home with force in March, when the Ever Given stopped up the Suez. The six-day blockage threw the cargo transport world into temporary disarray, and forced us all to think about the invisible, indispensable role of container ships in the global economy. Then we thought about it again as countries reopened, pent-up consumer spending exploded, and demand for shipping services soared.
Given shipping’s importance, it wouldn’t be a stretch to say that one of the world’s most crucial companies is Mærsk—or A. P. Møller-Mærsk, to use its full name. Mærsk is the world’s largest container shipping line, transporting every product you can imagine: from oil to toys to shoes to cars. Container shipping moves 90% of the world’s trade, and Mærsk handles one out of every five containers shipped by sea.
Founded in Denmark more than 100 years ago, Mærsk’s fortunes rose in neat parallel with globalization and 20th-century trade. The company began operating during the age of steam, and its first ship ran coal from Wales to Russia. Since then, Maersk has been a vital player in every development in the industry.
When, in the wake of World War II, international trade multiplied, Mærsk was there, opening new shipping lines between the continents. As the world relied increasingly on oil, Mærsk was there too, drilling for the stuff and shipping it in tankers. By its own admission, Mærsk was late to the container age; it started a container ship service in 1975, nearly 20 years after the first successful container shipping company was founded in the US. But Mærsk made up for the delay quickly, even setting up its own manufacturing plant for containers.
By the dawn of the 21st century, shipping had become part of a tight, efficient supply chain machine. So Mærsk got into that business, shepherding goods not just from port to port but door to door, and offering companies warehousing, cold-chain logistics, and block-chain-enabled shipping. Today, as the world moves to decarbonize, Maersk is preparing for that future as well: It just announced an order for eight container ships that run partly on carbon-neutral methanol.
By the digits
$12.4 billion: Mærsk’s revenue in the first quarter of 2021, up 30% over the previous year
$39.7 billion: Maersk’s 2020 revenue, up almost $1 billion over 2019
740: Ships in Mærsk’s fleet
1 million: Containers Mærsk moves each month
6: Average minutes that pass between Mærsk container ships calling at some port in the world
$300 million: The cost to Mærsk of a ransomware attack in 2017
$1,868: Mærsk’s average freight rate per 40-foot container as of August 2019
$3,038: Mærsk’s average freight rate per 40-foot-long container as of August 2021
Mærsk’s stock post-pandemic
In March 2020, when the world first ground to a halt amidst the Covid-19 pandemic, Mærsk’s stock price crashed to 5,034 Danish krone (DKK), or around $790. This year, the economic recovery has witnessed waves of pent-up spending, and a boom in shipping. Mærsk’s stock price has more than tripled, touching an all-time closing high of 18,425 DKK ($2,900) on July 7.
Origin story
1850: Peter Mærsk Møller, a Dane born on a small island off his country’s coast, first goes to sea as a cabin boy on a sailing ship.
1886: Mærsk Møller buys the Laura, a steamer, and begins training his sons in the family business.
1904: Mærsk Møller and his fourth son Arnold set up the Steamship Company Svendborg, the predecessor of today’s Mærsk.
1918: Arnold Møller sets up a shipbuilding yard, on the Danish island of Funen.
1928: Mærsk offers its first service between Asia and the US, with ships running every month and later every two weeks. The ships took 15 days to cross the Pacific.
1940: The Nazis occupy Denmark. Mærsk tells all its ships overseas to head to neutral ports and obey no further orders from Copenhagen.
1955: Mærsk’s ships are painted their distinctive light blue for the very first time, the color taken from an emblem containing a white, seven-pointed star against a blue background.
1968: With roughly 44 cargo ships, Mærsk opens services from Asia to Europe. Around this time, the development of the 20-foot container radically changes how trade is conducted. Container ships are so efficient that one such vessel can replace five traditional ships.
1975: Mærsk starts its first container ship service. The first vessel, Adrian Mærsk, leaves Newark with 385 containers.
1991: Mærsk sets up a plant to develop and manufacture containers.
1993: Riding on acquisitions, Mærsk becomes the world’s largest container carrier. The end of the Cold War results in a boom in global trade, and Mærsk rides that wave. In 1990, Mærsk was in 40 countries; by the end of the century, it will be in more than 100.
2009: Mærsk closes its shipbuilding business to focus on shipping.
2018: Mærsk sells its oil business to Total.
Mærsk in the Arctic
Late in the summer of 2018, an ice-class Mærsk vessel called the Venta Mærsk left Vladivostok, in the far east of Russia, and sailed for St. Petersburg. Instead of traversing the Suez Canal, though, it took the help of an icebreaker escort to use a shorter route—up through the Bering Strait, and then through the Northern Sea Route, running via the Arctic waters over Russia. You can watch a time-lapse video of the route here.
More such trips will follow, as the Arctic melts and stays open longer every year for ships to pass through. Mærsk will be presented with a whole new route to dominate, one running from the factories of China, through the Arctic, to the markets of Europe.
Pop quiz
Mærsk’s Triple-E ships, which are nearly 400 meters long, are among the largest container ships in the world. When full, one Triple-E ship can carry which of the following:
🚗 36,000 cars
🗽 1 Statue of LIberty
🗿 44 Easter Island heads
Keep learning
- Quartz’s field guide to opening the Arctic
- Why the world’s container ships grew so big
- Aboard a cargo colossus
- A huge cargo ship has set sail on a daring, world-first Arctic mission
Answer 🔑 : A Maersk Triple-E can carry 36,000 cars.
Thanks for reading! And don’t hesitate to reach out with comments, questions, or companies you want to know more about.
Best wishes for an efficient end to your week,
Senior reporter (and aspiring container-ship passenger)