MIDA Forges Partnership with Maersk to Drive High-Quality Investments into Malaysia

On 29 August 2022, the Malaysian Investment Development Authority (MIDA) formalised its partnership with multinational shipping giant AP Moller-Maersk (Maersk) to drive high-quality investments into Malaysia. This would lead to increased contribution to the growth and development of the local supply chain sector, thereby spurring Malaysia to be one of the premier logistics hubs in Asia Pacific.

The memorandum of understanding (MoU) was signed by MIDA Deputy CEO (Investment Promotion and Facilitation) Mr. Sivasuriyamoorthy Sundara Raja, and Maersk – Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore Managing Director Mr. Rupesh Jain.

In his remarks, Mr. Sivasuriyamoorthy highlighted the importance of logistics to international trade in today’s increasingly connected world and Maersk’s instrumental role in leading various initiatives to uplift the logistics industry.

“By connecting suppliers to manufacturers, and consumers to businesses, we support the growth of various industries. The MoU with Maersk will bring in more targeted global investments into Malaysia through strategic and value-added engagement approaches to multinational companies (MNCs). By leveraging Maersk’s capabilities in integrated logistics, we can transform Malaysia into a regional logistics hub in ASEAN, further boosting infrastructure development and free trade,” Mr. Sivasuriyamoorthy said.

As the global leader in shipping services, Maersk is an integrated container logistics company that operates in 130 countries and employs approximately 100,000 people to connect and simplify its customers’ supply chains. Currently, Maersk has seven warehouses in Peninsular Malaysia for its consolidation and fulfillment activities. These warehouses have a combined capacity of up to 68,000 square metres, while Maersk employs over 300 staff members across 12 locations nationwide.

MIDA and Maersk will work together to attract high-tech and high-impact investments in the sectors including automotive, electrical and electronics (E&E), machinery and equipment (M&E), medical devices, aerospace, renewable energy, and consumer technology sectors. Both parties will also build a mutually-beneficial ecosystem in focus markets to maximise the attraction of foreign direct investments (FDI) into Malaysia.

“As our customers are reconfiguring their supply chains to make them more agile, resilient and sustainable, Maersk is constantly growing our logistics footprints globally to support this transformation for our customers. With the ambition to provide truly integrated logistics to our customers, this collaboration with MIDA allows us to leverage our strengths and combine with Malaysia’s geographical advantage to mount solutions in the region,” said Mr. Rupesh Jain.

This MoU aligns well with MIDA’s role as the government’s principal investment promotion agency to oversee and drive investments into Malaysia, guided by the National Investment Aspirations (NIA).

Maersk’s latest acquisitions to expand its network in the logistics industry:

1. Acquisition of LF Logistics – Maersk announced the completion of its acquisition of LF Logistics, a Hong Kong-based contract logistics company, with premium capabilities within omnichannel fulfilment services, e-commerce, and inland transport in the Asia-Pacific region.

2. Acquisition of Martin Bencher Group – Maersk has reached an agreement to acquire Martin Bencher Group, a Denmark-based project logistics company with premium capabilities within non-containerised project logistics. Martin Bencher was founded in 1997 and is an asset-light logistics provider that specialises in project logistics.

3. Acquisition of Pilot Freight Services – Maersk has announced the completion of its acquisition of Pilot Freight Services, a leading U.S.-based international and domestic supply chain provider with cross-border solutions into Canada and Mexico. Pilot Freight Services will be rebranded to Pilot – A Maersk Company.

4. Closing of the acquisition of Senator International – Maersk announced the closing of the acquisition of Senator International, a well-renowned global company in freight forwarding. Senator brings with it a strong organisation and a well-developed airfreight network comprising own controlled flights and long-term partnerships with best-in-class airlines, a well-established full container load (FCL) and less than container load (LCL) network and specialised services such packaging, warehousing and distribution across five (5) continents.

5. Acquisition of HUUB – Maersk announced the acquisition of HUUB, a Portuguese cloud-based logistics start-up, specialised in technology solutions for B2C warehousing for the fashion industry. This is Maersk´s third acquisition this year within E-commerce Logistics and it comes through our venture activities with Maersk Growth.