Maersk’s CEO Soren Skou has made an unambiguous
statement that he can’t imagine self-sailing box-ships in his life time, he
said in an interview.
It is unlikely, he says, container vessels will
operate without humans in his lifetime.
A.P. Moller-Maersk A/S has already pushed through
enough cuts to reduce crew sizes in response to the spread of automation, CEO
Soren Skou said. He says the workforce has now reached a floor and there’s no
more room to get rid of humans.
“Even if the technology advances, I don’t expect we
will be allowed to sail around with 400-meter long container ships, weighing
200,000 tonnes without any human beings on board,” the 53-year-old CEO said. “I
don’t think it will be a driver of efficiency, not in my time.”
There are more than 6,000 ships in the global
container fleet and they can transport 22 million standard 20-foot boxes,
industry consultant Alphaliner estimates. Ships have grown bigger, but
efficiency and automation have kept crew sizes in check, meaning Maersk needs
less than half as many sailors to transport a container as it did 20 years ago.
Container ships are unlikely to grow much bigger,
Maersk has said. Skou says there’s little cost benefit in getting rid of more
humans. To be sure, Maersk has developed a self-sailing tug boat at its Svitzer
towage unit, but the concept won’t be rolled out to container vessels because
“is not a cornerstone of our strategy,” Skou said.
It’s not that Maersk is a stranger to innovation. The
Copenhagen-based company, which often has led the industry in new ship designs,
is investing more than ever in going digital. Last month, it formed a joint
venture with IBM to develop the use of blockchain technology to manage and
track cross-border trade.
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Becoming Rivals
The marine unit of Rolls-Royce Holdings Plc is the
pioneer in developing self-sailing technologies. Its CEO, Warren East, has
sharpened the focus on autonomous shipping as a future business to address a
downturn in the offshore oil industry. But even after cutting 4,200 jobs, the
unit has remained unprofitable and was put up for sale last month.
“I must admit, it’s not
hugely interesting for us,” Skou said. |