Moller Sells Trucking Portion of Norfolkline to DSV

Partial sale follows collapse of talks for entire short-sea subsidiary

A.P. Moller-Maersk is selling some of the trucking services provided by its European ferry subsidiary Norfolkline Logistics to DSV, Scandinavia’s largest trucking and logistic group.

The Danish parent of Maersk Line said today it will sell to DSV its trucking services from Norway and Sweden to Germany, Switzerland and France as of July 1.

 

Moller-Maersk had been considering the sale of all of the marginally profitable short-sea shipping subsidiary, but talks about selling it to a joint venture of DSV and DFDS collapsed earlier this month, after EU competition authorities opened an in-depth probe into the deal.

“The activity is a relatively small part of Norfolkline Logistics and we believe the activities will be better positioned to serve the market when merged with the DSV business in these corridors,” said Norfolkline Logistics Managing Director Eddie Green.

 

After the collapse of talks about acquiring all of Norfolkline in a venture with DFDS, DSV Chairman Kurt Larsen told Reuters that DSV would not approach Norfolkline on its shipping activities, but logistics and road transport assets could become interesting to the company.

Norfolkline Logistics said it will continue to develop its remaining intermodal, trailer, and logistics services in the Nordic countries and throughout Europe.

 

In its annual report, Maersk said of Norfolkline, “The profit before financial items rose from 2007, due to gains on the sale of two ships that have both been chartered back for a period.

“The profit excluding sales gains was somewhat below 2007, negatively influenced by the economic slowdown in Great Britain, higher fuel costs and exchange rate effects resulting from the weakened pound sterling.”

 

Last year Norfolkline transported 1.3 million trailers.

 

(Source: Journal of Commerce)