A.P. Moeller-Maersk, a Danish conglomerate which runs the world's top container shipping line, will not raise its stake in its Malaysian port for now but is interested in ports in Vietnam and Indonesia, an executive said on Wednesday.
Maersk bought a 30 percent stake in Malaysia's Port of Tanjung Pelepas (PTP) in 2000 and - together with Taiwan's Evergreen Marine - shifted its trans-shipment hub in Asia to PTP from Singapore port operator PSA [PSA.UL].
"There are no plans to increase the stake. We are very happy there," Thomas Orting Jorgensen, Maersk's Chief Executive for Southeast Asia, told reporters.
"PTP will remain our major hub but of course we will also offer our customers the service they want in Singapore."
PTP is 70 percent owned by Malaysian infrastructure firm MMC and has profited from its favourable location at the southern end of the Malacca Straits, Asia's busiest shipping route.
Tanjung Pelepas is just about 20 kilometres (13 miles) west of Singapore, the world's busiest port, and is cheaper than the Singapore state-owned rival. It expects to handle more than 5 million containers this year, less than a quarter of Singapore's annual throughput.
To diversify income and reduce its dependence on economic cycles in the shipping industry, PTP is also expanding an adjacent free commercial and industrial zone, whose tenants are the world's biggest contract electronics manufacturer Flextronics and Japanese electronics firm JST.
Orting Jorgensen declined to elaborate on what Maersk planned to do once contracts between PSA and P&O Nedlloyd, the Dutch container liner acquired by the Danish group last year, come up for renewal, which he said was "in a couple of years".
He also said he had identified Vietnam and Indonesia as interesting markets to operate container terminals.
"There would be a number of opportunities in Vietnam," he said but declined to be more specific.
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