Maersk official blasts port productivity

News was prepared under the information support of Online Daily Newspaper on Hellenic and international Shipping "Hellenic Shipping News".

31 Jan 2008

A senior Maersk executive says the shipping industry is losing $615 million a year due to port inefficiencies and poor management.Speaking at a conference in Dubai, Maersk Line operations manager, Middle East Area, Poul Woodall, said his analysis took into account 16,000 port calls over a seven-year period throughout the Middle East region. Shipping weekly Fairplay said Woodall highlighted a decline in productivity of 10-20% over seven years. ''What other industry would accept such a development?'' he asked. Woodall criticized 'over-emphasis' on building new (and expanding old) infrastructure instead of increasing efficiency. He also criticized 'over-priced ports with poor performance'. ''We have a facility charging five times more cost at a third of the productivity (of the best),'' he claimed. He added that shipping lines would prepared to pay more for productivity improvements.