Maersk Line recolates Singapore HQ to Hong Kong

The decision also means that a number of functions and jobs are being discontinued at the Singapore office, the most notable of which likely being that Maersk Line’s Regional Manager, Lars Mikael Jensen, has been pulled back to the carrier’s global HQ in Copenhagen.

More jobs to Singapore? 

According to a Maersk Line spokesman, the future looks a little brighter for Singapore with the merger.

“Combining the two regions will enable simpler and more standardised processes. This will allow us to create a leaner organisation to operate with greater transparency and alignment on a regional, as well as cluster (sub-regional) level.” said a Maersk Line spokesman to channelnewsasia.com

The management team in Hong Kong will remain and oversee a larger geography moving forward, it added.

With the merger, Maersk Line’s Singapore office will now become a country cluster office overseeing business in Southeast Asia, said the firm.

It added that Singapore “remains of strategic importance to the entire Maersk Group”, and the conversion to a cluster office for Southeast Asia will “in actual terms lead to more jobs based in the Singapore office as a bigger management team is being set up to head the Southeast Asia cluster.”

In a statement to ShippingWatch, the carrier notes the following about the reorganization in Asia:

“This is part of the organisational changes following Maersk Line’s announcement on 4 November 2015. Combining the two regions will enable simpler and more standardised processes. This will allow us to create a leaner organisation to operate with greater transparency and alignment on a regional, as well as cluster (sub-regional) level. We remain committed to the Asia Pacific region and will keep serving our customers through representation in all the countries we currently do business in within the region.”

The announcement year dealt mainly with the huge reduction in the carrier’s workforce, totaling 4,000 employees, which Maersk Line plans to complete in the coming years.

The container carrier expects to cut 4,000 of the total 23,000 on-land positions ahead of 2017 as digitalizations and organizational changes come into full effect.

“We are fewer people today than a year ago. We will be fewer next year and the following year. These decisions are not taken lightly, but they are necessary steps to transform our industry,” said Maersk Line CEO Søren Skou.