Plans to increase airfreight base

DUTCH-BORN John Mietes is set to build the company to cover all aspects of integrated logistics management in order to offer the market a full package. Maersk Logistics' airfreight base is only around 5%, with seafreight making up the remainder, but the intention is to increase this by at least 15% due in the main to US client base dictates. Further growth is also foreseen in the reefer trades in both conventional and containerised cargoes. Most of it is shipped from Cape Town but the intention is to expand into Durban and Johannesburg. Both Mietes and Mark Cairns are dedicated to increasing Maersk's training facility in South Africa for which a "substantial" budget exists. As Cairns puts it: "If one of our guys, say from Togo, requires training he need not go to Copenhagen but rather South Africa where we offer global western systems along with a true African flavour."