"Rates have increased, but more importantly, we have taken out costs by, among other things, reducing fuel consumption through slow steaming and better planning," CEO Nils Smedegaard Andersen said in Maersk Post.
"We are more competitive today than before the crisis," Andersen said, adding that cost cutting would continue across the group as competitors are doing likewise in the face of global market uncertainty in the second half of 2010 and beyond.
The global shipping industry is clawing back from a steep plunge in 2008-2009 as world trade recovers.
The conglomerate's Maersk Line, which is the world's biggest container shipping company, dragged the A.P. Moller-Maersk group into the red last year, but increasing freight rates and volumes helped it back to profits in the first quarter of this year.
"Only if we keep the momentum we have gained in the last 18 months will we be able to maintain the leadership positions we gained during 2009," Andersen said.
Maersk Line chief Eivind Kolding told the magazine that the company is "out of the storm" and now aims to widen its gap to rivals by improving reliability of its service.
"We can see there is huge potential for Maersk Line to perform better in terms of reliability," Kolding said.
He said that Maersk Line aims to raise its on-time delivery performance to 95 percent from 70 percent now.
"Such a dramatic increase in reliability would allow our customers to significantly reduce their inventory buffer and would increase our lead over our competitors," Kolding said. (Reuters)
