Maersk Bets Against Europe Growth as Recession Hits Trade

Maersk Line is betting European efforts to escape a recession this year will fail as the world’s biggest shipping company shifts its business away from the debt-plagued region.

“We think there will be negative growth in Europe this year and that is affecting our view of Asia-Europe trade,” Trond O. Westlie, chief financial officer of A.P. Moeller-Maersk A/S, the owner of Maersk Line, said yesterday in an interview in Copenhagen. “The solution that Europe is trying to take is different from the solution that the U.S. is taking. We believe that general growth will be higher in the U.S.”