The number of Maersk employees working from home has increased considerably amid lockdown measures implemented across Europe and Asia to contain the coronavirus pandemic.
“I am proud to experience how this transition has been managed rapidly by our teams without any major impact on our ability to keep the wheels of global trade spinning. In fact, 85% of our global office-based staff work from home today,” Vincent Clerc, CEO of Ocean and Logistics at Maersk, said.
Clerc added that the goods continue to flow across geographies despite the pandemic. However, measures taken by governments and companies to mitigate the crisis will result in an economic slowdown.
Hence, he confirmed the company’s expectation of lower volume demand in the coming weeks.
“We are actively preparing our network to match a reduced demand level. We believe that it is our responsibility to right-size in order to protect our cost position, both to be able to weather these storms but importantly also to ensure that you have a partner who cares for the integrity of your supply chain as we look to lifting the world out of this crisis,” he pointed out.
In a previous advisory, Clerc said the company was coming up with solutions to mitigate the pandemic’s impact on the supply chain and keep global trade running on a daily basis and that its seafarers have extended their time at sea.
Furthermore, last week A.P. Møller – Mærsk A/S suspended the 2020 guidance on EBITDA pending more clarity on the market development and financial implications from the pandemic.
Maersk previously guided an EBITDA of around $ 5.5 billion, before restructuring and integration costs.