Maersk commences staff lay-off.

Danish shipping giant Maersk has confirmed that it would be reducing the number of employees in its offices in both Denmark and abroad.

The company said the layoffs arose from the need to reduce costs in its head office functions.

How many jobs will be axed is yet unknown as Maersk itself is still evaluating the extent of cuts that are necessary.

“The savings are a natural part of the ongoing priority, where we focus on supporting our strategy and creating value for our customers,” a Maersk spokesperson said in response to a World Maritime News inquiry.

The layoff procedure starts as Maersk continued improving profitability in the third quarter of the year despite a decrease in revenue.

“The strong performance for the quarter combined with our expectations for the rest of the year, led to the recent upgrade of our earnings expectations for 2019. We will continue our focus on profitability and free cash flow in the fourth quarter and into 2020,” Søren Skou, CEO of A.P. Møller – Mærsk A/S, said commenting the results.