Maersk Supply Service, a Denmark-headquartered provider of offshore marine services, is reducing its workforce by 200 positions due to low offshore activity.
The company has 2,200 employees representing over 30 nationalities.
According to the company, approximately 120 seafarers have already been made redundant over the last couple of months in Canada, Australia and Brazil where local content regulation applies, and now further measures are needed.
The continued market decline in the offshore industry has led to a number of vessel lay-ups globally. At present Maersk Supply Service has eight vessels in lay-up and foresees additional lay-ups in the months to come, the company said.
“Regrettably we have to further adjust the crew pool by approximately 200 European and South African offshore positions, ” said Jørn Madsen , CEO of Maersk Supply Service.
“The cost efficiency program is still ongoing, and we are continuously working alongside our customers to develop ways to reduce the total cost of operation to strengthen our competitiveness. As we expect continued low activity the coming years, we need to take the necessary measures to adjust Maersk Supply Service to safeguard our future business,” Jørn Madsen added.
The company says it expects the redundancy process covering European and South African seafarers to be finalised by the end of November.
Maersk Supply Service explained that the process would aim to reflect the current distribution of nationalities, meaning approximately 60% redundancies would affect Danish and 20% British offshore positions with the last approximately 20% being South African and other European nationalities.