Company facts and information

Maersk Line is the core liner shipping activity of the A.P. Moller – Maersk Group, and the leading container shipping company in the world. The Maersk Line fleet comprises more than 500 vessels and a number of containers corresponding to more than 1,900,000 TEU (Twenty foot Equivalent Unit – a container 20 feet long). This ensures a reliable and comprehensive coverage worldwide.

What is container shipping?
Containerisation is a global system of intermodal cargo transport using standardised containers, which can be loaded and sealed intact onto container ships, railroad cars, planes and trucks. Prior to the introduction of containers, cargo handling for sea transportation was both time consuming and expensive. Containers have changed that fundamentally. Transport is now safer and more affordable than ever before.

World trade would not be the same without the modern container, invented in 1956. Today, it carries more than 90 percent of all goods in world trade. Every commodity and type of goods can be loaded and carried in ‘the box’, as the container is often referred to. As a result, modern container shipping has changed the way we transport goods around the world and has played a key role in globalisation.

• A single 20-foot container can hold about 48,000 bananas. So, in theory, a PS-vessel such as the EMMA MAERSK can transport approximately 528 million bananas in a single voyage - enough to give every person in Europe or North America a banana for breakfast.
• If all Maersk Line containers were placed one after the other, they would reach about 19,000 km. This is more than the distance from Copenhagen, Denmark to Perth, Australia, via Cape Town, South Africa or almost half of the earth's circumference or almost three times the earth's radius.
• If all the Maersk Line containers were stacked on top of each other they would reach approximately 2,500 kilometres high, equivalent to stacking 8,550 Eiffel Towers on top of each other.
• At any one point in time, Maersk Line is transporting cargo worth approximately three percent of the world's GNP (world GNP in 2005: USD 36,356,240,000,000).

• In 2009, Maersk Line vessels will make around 35,000 port calls - equivalent to approximately four port calls per hour or one call every 15 minutes. 

Maersk Line at a glance

Organisation

• Employees: about 16,900 and 7,600 Seafarers.
  
• Number of representations: about 325 offices
• Located in: more than 125 countries

Financial information

Maersk Line is a division of the A.P. Moller – Maersk Group.

For the latest financial reports and more information visit A.P. Moller – Maersk Group’s website maersk.com.

See financial information here
» Financial information

Our vessels

• PS-type vessel capacity: about 11,000 TEU
• G-type vessel capacity: about 7,000 TEU
• S-type vessel capacity: about 6,600 TEU
• M-type vessel capacity: about 6,500 TEU
• K-type vessel capacity: about 6,000 TEU
• PS-type reefer capacity: about 1,000 plugs
• S and K-type reefer capacity: about 700 plugs
• A PS-class vessel such as the EMMA MÆRSK can carry 11,000 full 20-foot containers. That equals a train 71 kilometres long.
• The anchor of a PS-class vessel such as the EMMA MÆRSK weighs 29 tonnes, equivalent to five adult African elephants.
• The main engine of a PS-class vessel such as the EMMA MÆRSK produces 109,000 horsepower, equal to that of 1,156 family cars.
• Combined, the accommodation and bridge of a PS-class vessel are as high as a twelve-storey building.
• PS-class vessels are equipped with a waste heat recovery system, saving up to ten percent of main engine power. That is equal to the average annual electrical consumption of 5,000 European households.

Print version