World’s largest container carrier Maersk mulls Lankan entry

14 January 2016 02:59 am

The world’s largest container carrier Maersk Line is looking to invest in a container facility in Sri Lanka, Danish Ambassador for Sri Lanka Taksøe-Jensen said during a meeting with Industry and Commerce Minister Rishad Bathiudeen. 

“The world’s largest container shipper Maersk Line is a Danish firm. I am pleased to say that it is planning to enter Sri Lanka and looking to invest in a new container facility and join the Colombo port expansion and set up a warehouse facility as well,” New Delhi-based Taksøe-Jensen was quoted as saying in an Industry and Commerce Ministry press statement. 

 Maersk Line has been the world’s largest container shipping company since 1996. It operates 604 container vessels across the world and calls on 343 ports in 121 countries.  Maersk Line is an operating unit of A.P. Moller–Maersk, the Danish business conglomerate, which according to the Forbes magazine, is the third largest company in the entire Nordic region.
According to Taksøe-Jensen, Novo Nordisk A/S, the Danish multinational pharmaceutical firm, the world leader in insulin production, is also very interested in establishing a subsidiary in Sri Lanka 

“Denmark-Sri Lanka bilateral relations extend a long time back and as for trade, since 2000, our bilateral trade has increased by a huge 300 percent to US $ 94 million by end of 2014,” said Minister Bathiudeen.

Danish Honorary Consul General in Sri Lanka Harry Jayawardena, who accompanied the ambassador, said, “It is time for closer business-to-business cooperation between our two countries. A strong Danish business delegation to Colombo is also in the pipeline and the details are being worked out.”