APM Terminals attains milestone in new Global Transformation programme
… As Maersk Line gets The Best Partner Award from LG Electronics
Just one year into its new Global Transformation programme, APM Terminals has reached an important milestone in the global port operator’s quest for efficiency gains.
The crane lift per hour – a key indicator for performance in a marine terminal – improved no less than eight per cent across APM Terminals’ portfolio during 2012.
At the start of 2012, the independent port operator set out on an ambitious journey to identify local best practices and develop them into global standards – or to quote Chief Executive Officer Kim Fejfer “to learn from the McDonalds and Burger Kings of this world when it comes to standardising and finding that one best way to produce any port operation.”
Since then, a traveling “black belt force” of operational experts has been visiting facilities, analysing operations and finding waste and unnecessary procedures to take out of the system.
According to the APM Terminals boss, the results are extremely encouraging.
The original objective was to improve efficiency 15 per cent. within the first two years.
Given the first year improvements, the APM Terminals Chief Executive Officer is set on the targets that seem to be within reach.
“When larger and larger vessels are being deployed, the customers will have an increased appreciation of the value of having the fastest possible turnaround time in port. So we are well on our way to develop a true pitstop mentality – similar to what you see in a good race car team – in all our facilities,” Fejfer said.
Volumes handled by APM Terminals on an equity weighted basis grew six per cent, ahead of market growth at four per cent.
APM Terminals’ overall result for 2012 has been positively affected by portfolio changes and one offs, creating a revenue of $4,780 million, an EBITDA of $1,093 million, and net operating profit after tax was $723 million.
Excluding the impact of extraordinary items, underlying ROIC was 12.5 per cent, in essence on par with previous year’s performance.
“I am pleased that we can present a stable financial performance in a year heavily influenced by global economic downturn, challenged shipping sector and softening of Asia/Europe trade. In my view, we have been successful in two aspects: Developing attractive propositions to our more than 60 global shipping line customers – and developing the right port facilities with a strategic focus on growth markets,” Fejfer said.
Meanwhile, on Monday, Maersk Line was awarded The Best Partner Award by LG Electronics (LGE).
The award recognises the partner who has performed the highest reliability in combination of LG’s internal carrier preference score from 30 factories, 120 branches and headquarters, among 42 carriers.
When presenting the award, Head of Global Logistics at LG Electronics, Jong Yun Chou, spoke of “success of collaboration and long term relationship with Maersk Line.”
“The strong partnership and unmatched schedule,” he said, allows LGE to easily handle their global deliveries, “and it also enables us to save logistics cost as well as manage delivery of time sensitive electronics efficiently without contingency plan every single week. We expect more business opportunities with Maersk Line for the coming years.”
Global collaboration and communication among many different stakeholders contributed to the success of creating a compelling value proposition and delivering the promised service.
Korea Cluster Top, Thomas Lindy Sorensen, said: “We are very proud to receive this award from LG Electronics. This shows that the hard work done by the Key Client team, spread across the globe, is being recognised by LG Electronics. LG is an important customer to Maersk Line and this recognition should be seen as a confirmation of the value both companies see from this cooperation. We look forward to continuing to build on this great relationship.”
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