SAFMARINE REPORTS GROWTH

SAFMARINE REPORTS GROWTH    Safmarine Container Lines, the Antwerp-based shipping line owned by A.P. Moller, reported ongoing, rapid growth in its business despite the downturn of the global container shipping market.
   “We achieved a record financial result and grew our business by 16 percent (in 2001),” said Howard Boyd, chief executive officer, in Safmarine’s in-house magazine.
   In 2001, Safmarine entered the transpacific and U.S./East Coast of South America trades, by taking space on the ships of Maersk Sealand, its sister company within the A.P. Moller group.
   Boyd said that Safmarine forecasts to increase its business by 18 percent in 2002, thanks to “new trade routes, new sales offices under the Safmarine banner, new e-commerce initiatives.”
   “When achieved, Safmarine’s business will be almost 50 percent larger than at the time we joined the A.P. Moller group,” Boyd added. Safmarine was sold by the South Africa-based SAFREN group to Denmark’s A.P. Moller in 1999.
   Safmarine, part of the stockmarket-listed A.P. Moller group, does not publish separate financial results.
   In another move, Safmarine has absorbed its non-vessel-operating common carrier unit, Himalaya Express. The unit will no longer trade under a separate name.
   Himalaya Express has provided container shipping services on the route connecting Europe to the Mideast, Pakistan and India.