The world's largest container shipping company A P Moller-Maersk will go full steam ahead with large investments to generate focused future growth, even though tougher shipping conditions are shaping up for the quarters to come, its chief executive said.
"We will also continue to streamline our costs side, but we are poised to invest in growth now. This also means that the deteriorating freight rates won't make our hands shake. They won't make us scale back our ambitions," Maersk chief executive Nils Smedegaard Andersen told Dow Jones Newswires.
Earlier, Maersk announced it's first-quarter net profit rose 85 percent to US$1.22 billion, but also cautioned that declining freight rates will hamper the profitability of its container shipping division, Maersk Line, in the second quarter.
Analysts have fretted that the weaker rates could lead to a full-year guidance reduction, but Maersk kept its full-year targets unchanged.
Smedegaard Andersen said he expects second-half 2011 rates will be "somewhat better", but stopped short of guaranteeing weak rates won't lead to a guidance revision later this year.
|
