Our history

A.P. Møller had long fostered the idea of establishing a shipyard and thus combining shipping experience with shipbuilding. In 1918, A.P. Møller had acquired the means to establish the Odense Steel Shipyard on the island of Funen. The shipyard was a major supplier for the company, especially after 1980 when the first container ship was delivered. In 2009, it was decided that the shipyard was to be discontinued due to the competitive market. The ordering book was completed in 2012 when the final vessel from Odense Steel Shipyard was delivered.

Our first regular liner service with monthly sailings was initiated in 1928 under the brand Maersk Line. Up until then, our focus was on the tramp trade – when a vessel operates on the spot market and has no scheduled port calls. The first voyage went from Baltimore, USA, via the Panama Canal and the United States West Coast to Asian ports. The route between USA and the Far East was the only liner service provided by Maersk Line until 1947, where new routes were established. Our first base cargo was Ford Motor Company car parts.

The light blue colour was first introduced as the background colour for the seven-pointed star back in 1886, when the Maersk logo was used for the first time. The new-build REGINA MÆRSK delivered from Odense Steel Shipyard in 1955, became the first Maersk vessel to have the light blue colour painted on the hull. The new appearance was positively received and within a few years the entire Maersk fleet was painted in a light blue colour.

A joint-venture between A.P. Moller, Shell and Gulf was established in 1962. The Danish Underground Consortium (DUC) was to assist A.P. Moller, who had no prior experience in the field, with exploration activities and the possible extraction of raw materials from the underground. Gulf initially handled the operator role in DUC. By 1974, Maersk had the competences in place to share the operatorship in the North Sea and in 1986, Maersk Oil became the sole operator for DUC in charge of offshore explorations.

Maersk Supply Service was started when the company took delivery of 2 supply vessels which were to serve the chartered oil rig MAERSK EXPLORER with various types of material needed for drilling operations. In 1974, Maersk Supply Service became an independent business unit in the A.P. Moller - Maersk Group.

The development of the standard container in the mid-1960s initiated a revolution in world trade. Maersk was no forerunner in containerisation, but as demand from our costumers grew, we started containerising our original route from 1928 in 1975. Nine new container vessels ordered and on 5 September 1975, ADRIAN MÆRSK departed Newark, USA carrying 385 containers.

SVITZER was established in 1833 and acquired by A.P. Moller - Maersk in 1979. SVITZER engages in specialised marine activities such as harbour, coastal, terminal/LNG, offshore and ocean towage as well as salvage operations, crew-boat and emergency-response services.

Mærsk Container Industry was established with the purpose of developing and manufacturing containers for the shipping industry. The company’s first dry container plant was established in Tinglev, Denmark in 1991. By 1995, manufacturing also included refrigerated containers and new container plants were established in China in 1998 and 2004. Eventually container manufacturing in Denmark would cease and today MCI focuses solely on manufacturing refrigerated containers from its facility in Qingdao, China.

A.P. Moller - Maersk acquired all liner activities in EACBen Container Line Ltd. from the Danish East Asiatic Company (ØK), thus making Maersk Line the largest container shipping company in the world.

The two original companies, Dampskibsselskabet Svendborg and Dampskibsselskabet af 1912 (the Steamship Companies Svendborg and 1912) and their partnerships were merged under the name A.P. Møller - Mærsk A/S.

The British P&O and the Dutch Nedlloyd container shipping companies were merged into P&O Nedlloyd in 1995. In 2005, the constellation was acquired by A.P. Moller - Maersk. During the integration process, the Maersk-Sealand brand was changed back to Maersk Line (as before 2000). The integration of one large, global organization into another large, global organization proved difficult, but eventually provided Maersk Line with a scale that would not have been possible through organic growth.

Nils Smedegaard Andersen succeeded Jess Søderberg as CEO of A.P. Moller – Maersk in 2007. Nils S. Andersen had been a board member of A.P. Møller - Mærsk A/S for two years when he accepted the position as CEO, leaving a similar position with Carlsberg. Mr. Andersen remained the CEO until 2016.

Still active at the age of 98, Mærsk Mc-Kinney Møller passed away on 16 April 2012. The entrepreneurial spirit of A.P. Møller was inherited by his son Mærsk Mc-Kinney Møller who not only continued to build and expand the shipping and oil related businesses into global and market leading companies, but he also initiated an airline, an IT company, a container manufacturing business and a terminal business. His youngest daughter, Ane Mærsk Mc-Kinney Uggla assumed her father’s position as Chairman of the A.P. Møller Foundation.

On 24 April, the official opening of APM Terminals’ most technologically advanced, most automated and sustainable container terminal Maasvlakte II took place. The Maasvlakte II runs entirely on power generated by wind turbines and is the world's first terminal with zero carbon emissions.

 On 22 September, A.P. Moller - Maersk announced the strategic decision to reorganize the organization, from a conglomerate to becoming a focused, integrated transport and logistics company. The new strategy and vision of becoming the global integrator of container logistics, also meant that the company was to separate out the oil and gas-related businesses.

 In September 2017, A.P. Moller – Maersk entered into an agreement to sell the shares in Maersk Tankers to APMH Invest, a 100% owned subsidiary of A.P. Møller Holding A/S, the controlling shareholder of A.P. Moller - Maersk. 
Maersk Tankers was founded in 1928, when the first five tankers entered the Maersk fleet. A.P. Møller had become aware of this new business opportunity when demand for oil products increased during early 1920s and in 1927 he put in an order for five new-built tankers. The transportation of crude oil was our main business during the period 1950-1975.

 A material step in the strategy to separate out the oil and oil related activities to create an integrated transport & logistics company was taken in March 2018, when Maersk Oil was sold to TOTAL S.A. 
A.P. Moller – Maersk’s engagement in the oil and gas industry began when A.P. Møller and the company were granted sole concession for exploration and extraction of raw materials from the Danish underground in 1962.