JESPER D. LARSEN. Managing director Maersk-Filipinas Inc.

IN today’s global commerce, which requires seamless logistics solutions, a country’s geographical setting is indeed a determining factor in trade.

Fortunately for the Philippines, being an archipelagic country with more than 7,000 islands, this has never been a hindrance.

Maersk-Filipinas Inc. (MFI) managing director Jesper D. Larsen sees it differently, though.

“Rather than saying this is an advantage or a disadvantage, it’s a challenge for us,” he said in an interview with BusinessMirror. “It’s something that the 7,000 islands are there, so we just have to find a good way of dealing with this challenge.”

Liberalizing the domestic shipping industry, Larsen said, could help reduce the exorbitant cost of transportation locally—as shown in other island nations.

With the deregulation, he said there would be “free competition that will benefit the importer, exporter and the Filipinos as well due to improved service levels aside from the decrease in [transportation] cost.”

Maersk-Filipinas, together with other shipping lines, continues to engage in dialogues with the government and its attached agencies to push for the deregulation of the local shipping sector that includes ports and shipping lines, among others.

“We’re happy the government and its [concerned] agencies are willing to enter into a dialogue with us, and thereby trying to change things,” the shipping executive said. “We are optimistic it will push through.”

He also pointed out that improving the country’s poor infrastructure—such as the condition of local ports, roads and bridges—will also result in a more efficient transportation system.

“Once we have it all, it will be easier for us to better serve the Philippine customers,” Larsen said. “So far, we’re happy to see that the government has a lot of infrastructure projects in the pipeline. That is something we support 100 percent.”

Widest coverage

Ever since the Copenhagen-based Maersk Line docked its fleet in the country through its subsidiary Maersk-Filipinas, the Philippines has become an important market in the shipping giant’s global direction and operations.

“We attribute this to the fact that we have good relationships with many customers here in the Philippines, who happen to be our customers in other countries, as well,” stressed Larsen.

“Also, we see some growth opportunities [here] that we are keen on exploring and, in turn, translate them into profits.”

Maersk-Filipinas started as an agency in 1931 and was initially handled by Compania General de Tobacos de Filipinas. It has expanded over the years to offer the widest market coverage by an international shipping line in the Philippines with six local service points—Manila, Subic, Cebu, Davao, General Santos and Cagayan de Oro.

Such a broad coverage is “practically second to none, covering majority of the international market in the Philippines,” according to Larsen.

He added these major service points have lots of potential, “with most international traffic. We have been calling in these ports for a while and plan to continue to do so.”

While he said it is difficult to actually determine the profitability of each of these service points for the company, Larsen stressed that, generally, on the port level “they are commercially profitable because the ships that we have been calling there are calling more than one port—and we find that it makes sense [to our local business].”

In terms of growth by region, he mentioned Mindanao, “where the agricultural sector is having a good time,” citing the production of bananas and pineapples for exports. “So [Mindanao is] certainly an area we keep an eye on for further growth today and in the years to come.”

As for future expansion of its service network to other ports in the country, Larsen said there are no plans as yet to increase the company’s coverage, “although we always look at opportunities in other ports.”

Besides, even with just the six key service areas, “we are covering by far the majority of the international shipping market” in the Philippines,” he boasted.

Commitment to customers

Like all the other overseas auxiliaries of Maersk Line, Maersk-Filipinas is constantly equipping itself to better satisfy customers’ shipping requirements by making itself easy to do business with.

The company is working toward simplifying procedures that, in turn, will benefit the customers.

One of these ways is through an advanced e-commerce solution that enables the customers to easily handle their business with the company through the Internet. Maersk’s global IT network links the Philippines with the other 325 offices of Maersk Line in more than 100 countries, thus providing the latest and fastest response time to customers’ inquiries.

“This is one of the things that set us a bit apart from our competitors,” Larsen said.

Among its latest innovations, the Danish shipping firm recently introduced to the Philippines the use of PIN codes, which enable customer-service agents to identify the clients calling at the port while seeing the history of their previous transactions with Maersk-Filipinas.

“This helps us improve on how we do our business with them [the customers],” Larsen said, pointing out the positive feedback it got from customers. “For now, this [use of a PIN code] is available only in Manila. We are now looking at how we expand this system in other areas of our coverage.”

Apart from sea-transport solutions, Maersk-Filipinas also offers other logistics solutions, including trucking and air transport.  “This truly makes us a one-stop shop for our customers,” Larsen said. “With these innovative solutions, we hope to help and push the port and the whole industry in the right direction.”

Maritime security

WHILE Larsen believes the country’s laws and regulations related to port and maritime security are well-crafted insofar as protecting both environment and business interests, he said these have to be enforced strictly.

Since the September 11 terrorist attacks in the United States, security has become a very important issue worldwide, he said.

“Not only the US authorities, but authorities all over the world—and even our customers—are very much focused on security. They want to make sure those products, from the factory to the port, on the shipping line and then to the store and the consumer’s home, are safe all the way,” he stressed.

“So we do audits, together with the ports and the [Bureau of] Customs, to make sure everything is safe. But security is being handled pretty well here [in the Philippines].”

As to the decades-long insurgency problem in Mindanao, where it has service points in Davao, General Santos and Cagayan de Oro City, Larsen reported that business remains orderly, noting that “the ports are secured. There is no piracy in those waters.”

“While security is a concern in some other countries, we are extremely happy to say that in the Philippines we haven’t experience any [terror] incident, especially in Southern Mindanao,” he said.

“But it doesn’t mean we should be complacent. We will continue to dialogue with the Philippine Ports Authority and the individual ports to make sure nothing bad happens.”

In good hands

IN the 10 months since he took over the top post of Maersk Lines’ Philippine subsidiary on January 1, 2007, Maersk-Filipinas is definitely in good hands—as shown by the positive feedback from its local customers.

“We let our clients, including the Philippine customers, tell us how good or bad we are through a survey. So far, [the rate] is actually not bad. Hence, we are not where we need to be,” the shipping executive said. “We see it as a challenge to continue to work with our customers and better improve on our services.”

Believing that each employee contributes to maintaining and developing the shipping conglomerate’s global image, the company develops continuous training programs for its workers.

“Besides the standard training in terms of systems and our project knowledge, we’re focusing a lot on training our managers so that we have great managers that can take the company forward,” Larsen pointed out.

Looking at the future, Larsen wants Maersk-Filipinas “to be looked at as the preferred carrier by customers.”

“We are certain that would happen as shown by a lot of KPIs, or key performance indicators,” he said.

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