Maersk's Two-Track Port Play: Euroports Bulk, Vietnam Rail

Two deals carrying the Maersk family name, signed within three weeks of each other, have redrawn the map of the group's port ambitions — and both point at the same destination: control of corridors, not just quays.

On 28 September, APM Capital agreed to acquire a 53.35% stake in the parent of Euroports, an operator of more than 50 deep-sea and inland terminals across ten European countries and China. Euroports handles over 70 million tonnes of bulk, breakbulk and liquid bulk a year — fertilizers, grain, sugar, metals and forest products, the cargo that keeps European industry and food systems running.

Three weeks later, on 20 October in Copenhagen, APM Terminals signed a memorandum of understanding with Vietnamese conglomerate Hateco for a rail freight terminal network in northern Vietnam valued at up to US$3.5 billion. Put in perspective: Hateco valued its earlier Haiphong port project with Maersk at US$400 million, roughly a ninth of the new rail ceiling. Headline figures, in short, are running well ahead of committed money.

Two arms, one strategy

APM Terminals, Maersk's port unit, runs container terminals, and its investments follow the corridors that geopolitics is redrawing. Vietnam shows the template in four steps:

• APM began as an adviser to Hateco in 2023.
• It took a 49% stake in the Haiphong international container terminal in April 2026.
• It joined the Lien Chieu port project in Danang.
• It is now moving to the railhead.

Each step pushes control further from the quay into the hinterland. The same logic runs through on-dock rail at Mobile in the US, the rail-heavy Rijka Gateway in Croatia, and Balboa in Panama, where APM took over operations in February after Panama's Supreme Court annulled CK Hutchison's concessions and the Panama Maritime Authority took possession of the port by decree.

APM Capital is a different instrument. It is a separate infrastructure fund manager backed by A.P. Moller Holding, and it invests where the container business does not reach — bulk and breakbulk rather than boxes. Coming after APMC's investment in Spain's BERGÉ Logistics, the Euroports deal gives the group a layered presence in Iberia: APM Terminals' container gateways at Valencia and Barcelona, ringed by bulk, breakbulk and logistics assets around them. APMC chief executive Kim Fejfer framed the purchase in the language of resilient supply chains and secure trade flows.

Belgium's public investors SFPIM and PMV remain Euroports shareholders, with SFPIM saying it intends to keep strategic assets anchored in Belgium.

What does the government endorsement change?

Plenty. The Hateco agreement was signed during the state visit of Vietnam's General Secretary and President Tô Lâm to Denmark. Balboa changed hands by decree after court intervention. In each case, the Maersk position is co-owned or endorsed by the host government. That is the reverse of the exposure that cost CK Hutchison its Panama ports.

The contrast with CMA CGM is equally sharp. Where the French carrier orchestrates its network with as few hard assets as possible, the APM Group layers them — across cargo types and transport modes, on corridors aligned with the West.

Where the model could crack

The risks aren't hypothetical. Panama Ports Company has brought arbitration in London against Maersk over Balboa, and proceedings are likely to take years. Euroports still needs regulatory approvals, expected in the first quarter of 2027. And its footprint includes terminals in China — meaning a group building alternatives to Chinese port networks will itself hold assets under Chinese jurisdiction.

Vietnam adds its own exposure: the country's double-digit growth target is exposed to fuel disruption from the Iran war. Operating risk sits with APM Terminals, balance-sheet flexibility with A.P. Moller Capital, and political legitimacy is borrowed from host states.

Three markers will show whether the model holds: Panama's long-term tender for Balboa, regulatory clearance for Euroports, and the first binding commitment under the Vietnam memorandum. Watch those, and the strategy's substance — or its limits — will announce itself.