Maersk pulling out of Halifax
The Port of Halifax is losing one of its most visible clients.

Maersk shipping line accounts for about 25 per cent of the Halterm container terminal’s business and about nine per cent of port business overall. In her state-of-the-port address before the Halifax Chamber of Commerce yesterday, Halifax Port Authority president and CEO Karen Oldfield said she was confident Maersk will return.

The Danish shipping line temporarily pulled out of Halifax several years ago as well. It expects to announce some routing changes in the next few days. “Maersk is not the only fish in the sea. It’s a big fish, but it’s not the only fish,” Oldfield told a crowd of about 250 yesterday.

Oldfield said the port will play up its room for expansion. It will also encourage ocean carriers to travel through the Suez Canal for easy access to lucrative central North American markets via Halifax. The port authority opened an office in India last year to spur cargo trade between that country and North America. Halifax also wants to emulate such ports as Savannah, Ga., which has focused on large retail chains like Target, Walmart and Home Depot by opening retail distribution centres nearby.

A 90,000-square-foot-distribution centre is slated to open in Burnside in the next few months and another one may be in the works, but Oldfield said it’s not enough. She told reporters yesterday that she doesn’t think the relationship with Maersk is over. “We do have to appreciate that we’re talking about a local economy and a company that last year lost $600 million US. They’re looking at operations all around the world.

“If you were to go on their website any time over the last six months, you would see massive restructuring everywhere.” Maersk’s business represents about 50,000 twenty-foot equivalent units or TEUs to the port of Halifax. Oldfield said the port will continue to pursue that cargo. “There’s other shipping lines calling Halifax that are just salivating at the notion of going after those TEUs.” Halterm head Doug Rose also expressed confidence that Maersk will return but said it’s too soon to know whether layoffs are imminent.

Maersk spokeswoman Mary Ann Kotlarich said yesterday from New Jersey that she could only confirm that the company will stop calling on Halifax. More details will be available today.

Source: hfxnews.ca