Report says Maersk eyeing trucking, warehousing

CEO Soren Skou tells Financial Times the company needs to do acquisitions in the logistics space.    Everything old is new again at Maersk.
   London’s Financial Times newspaper reports that Soren Skou, the chief executive of the world’s largest container shipping company, says that as part of its expansion in logistics, Maersk is looking at investing in the trucking and warehouse businesses.
   “A little less than 20 percent of our customers buy the land side [of logistics] from us. But 100 percent of them need a truck to get to and from the port,” Skou told the Financial Times. “We for sure have to do some acquisitions in the logistics space, primarily to gain capability and scale.”
   His remarks come more than five years after Maersk sold its trucking subsidiary, Bridge Terminal Transport (BTT), to Platinum Equity, a Los Angeles-based private equity firm in 2013. BTT had more than 1,285 owner-operators and covered major port locations and inland rail sites through a network of 28 terminals, 25 container yards and over 1,285 owner-operators. Customers included shipping lines, importers/exporters and related segments. Platinum sold BTT to XPO Logistics in 2015.
   At the time of the BTT sale, Maersk said owning the trucking company did not fit in with its long-term strategic focus on shipping, energy and related activities.
   Maersk has switched direction in the last several years and is shedding its oil and gas businesses and is now focused on growing its involvement in logistics.