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A.P. Moller-Maersk A/S fell short of earnings expectations last year but promised its shareholders that profit at the world’s biggest shipping company will grow as much as 43% in 2018.

IBM and A.P. Moeller-Maersk A/S have started a company that will use new technologies such as blockchain, a digital ledger best known for underpinning bitcoin, to track cargo movements and automate paperwork for shipping across international borders.

The world’s largest container shipping line says international freight rates are reversing after climbing for most of this year, raising questions about the sustainability of the global trade recovery.

Danish shipping and oil group AP Moller-Maersk reported a third-quarter net loss of $1.5 billion, the firm said Nov. 7, citing write-downs in its drilling division and costs from a cyberattack.

Now that its oil and gas unit has been sold, A.P. Moller-Maersk A/S is planning separate divestments for the three remaining bits of what used to be a combined energy division, with estimates valuing those businesses at $7.5 billion in total.

A.P. Moller-Maersk A/S said a cyberattack that hit the owner of the world’s biggest container shipping company at the end of June will wipe as much as $300 million off profits in the third quarter.

A massive consolidation is underway in the $500 billion global industry and the survivors now enjoy big economies of scale and increased demand, one year after excess capacity caused the sector’s worst-ever crisis - the bankruptcy of South Korea’s Hanjin Shipping Co.

The world’s biggest container shipping company and Denmark’s largest issuer of corporate bonds may rely less on debt markets in the near future.