Neptune Orient Lines (NOL) has completed its restructuring announced in May along with first quarter losses of US$254 million and laid off a few hundred globally.
An NOL spokesman confirmed that the company had laid off "a few hundred" globally, mostly in its liner shipping business, APL, rather than its logistics arm, reported Business Times Singapore.
The lay-offs are less extensive than when NOL carried out a similar exercise in late-2008 where over 1,000 jobs were cut globally.
NOL had earlier indicated this round of restructuring would result in annual cost savings of $70 million from 2013 onwards.
The NOL spokesman said that the restructuring was not primarily motivated by cost savings. "The restructuring was done because the company had become bureaucratic and slow in decision-making. It was to streamline our operations to make it more responsive to our customer needs," he said.
While this particular chapter of restructuring has drawn to a close, he added that the company would be continually reviewing its structure.
The restructuring is understood to have led to the departure of long-serving managers. One of them is APL president for South Asia, Goh Teik Poh, who has been with the group since 1980. He was succeeded by Jason Wong, who has worked with NOL for 25 years.
With container shipping companies in a deep downturn that turned in over $6 billion in losses last year, NOL is not the only container shipping company which has suffered key management changes in the past month.
Denmark's Maersk Line lost its chief financial officer, Peter Roennest Andersen, in June.
In addition, NOL announced that it would be selling its building at 456 Alexandra Road to free up capital. It appointed Jones Lang LaSalle to market the 29-year-old freehold building, which is estimated to sell for about $400 million.
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