Maersk Tankers Project Best Performance

Maersk Tankers emerges from 2015 with its best result in many years. Increasing rates and results from the Taking Lead Strategy mean that Maersk Tankers has achieved an underlying result of USD 156 m, USD 150 m of which came from the product tanker segment, which Maersk Tankers chose to focus on a couple of years ago.

Maersk Tankers leaves 2015 with a highly satisfying result of USD 160 m (USD 132 m in 2014) and a return on invested capital of 9.9% (6.8% in 2014). The underlying result for 2015 is USD 156 m, against an underlying result of USD 138 m in 2014, of which USD 28 m were lost on the product tanker segment. The profit in 2014 could be attributed to the larger VLCC vessels, which Maersk Tankers sold off during 2014, including the reversal of provision for onerous contracts of USD 87 m.

Maersk Tankers has found it difficult to deliver satisfactory results for several years due to very low rates in the market. This meant that, a couple of years ago, Maersk Tankers chose to focus on the product tanker market, through which Maersk Tankers expects to be able to achieve the best earnings in the long-term, for example due to the refineries moving closer to the oil wells. The focus on the product tanker market, as well as on improved earnings, is the basis of the Taking Lead Strategy, which was launched in the summer of 2014.

The rates in the product tanker segment began to increase as early as late 2014, and even earlier in the VLCC market. The increasing rates, along with the results of the Taking Lead Strategy, mean that Maersk Tankers has achieved its best result in many years, USD 21 m of which can be attributed to improvements achieved through the initiatives from the Taking Lead Strategy, which comprises three main elements:

  * Cost Leadership, where the focus is on optimising costs connected to fleet operations/Daily Running Cost

  * Active Position Taking, where Maersk Tankers will strengthen the planning of vessel positioning through increased data use, which will mean that Maersk tankers will have a greater chance of getting the most profitable loads

  * 3rd party Services, which is an expansion of Maersk Tankers’ pools with more external vessels.