<p>Soren Skou, CEO of Danish shipping group Maersk Line, has admitted that the company misjudged the strength in demand for container shipping, which was weaker than anticipated.<hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"> The Wall Street Journal reports that the demand proved to be far more sluggish than the company expected when it spent $3.7 billion on an order for 20 new vessels two years ago. These Triple-Es, which will be deployed on the Asia-to-Europe trade route, can carry 18,000 containers, some 11% more than the second-largest vessels, and also consume 35% less fuel on average than other ships in the company’s lineup.<hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"> “It’s pretty clear than when we look back to early part of 2011 when these ships were ordered, ours and everybody else’s view on growth was somewhat different than what it turned out to be and therefore the market will not be as quite as big in 2015 as we thought it to be,” said Skou.<hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"> In the past two years, with shipping capacity expanding fast and global trade growing more slowly than expected, smaller shipowners have fought hard for market share by reducing prices. Maersk Line and other big players couldn’t make a $500-per-container increase in average freight rates stick this summer.<hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"> Now, Maersk Line is relying on the planned P3 cargo-sharing alliance with European rivals CMA CGM and Mediterranean Shipping Co. to cut costs and reduce the number of ships plying major routes between Europe and Asia to 250 from 300.<hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"> “We expect to reduce annual costs 8% [with P3] and increase capacity by 6% by deploying fewer but bigger ships,” said Skou, mentioning that once the agreement has been ratified, the number of ships in Asia-Europe will be cut to 250, resulting in significant savings.<hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"> The P3 will command more than 40% of total capacity on the Asia-to-Europe trade line, where some 17% of global container capacity is deployed.</p><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"><p><a class="btn btn-sm btn-primary col-lg-12" style="white-space: normal;" href=" http://www.maersk.com/pages/default.aspx" target="_new"> Maersk Line </a></p><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding">
