Soren Skou continues to keep a tight grip on AP Moller-Maersk’s cheque book with the chief executive ruling out allocating capital to order large container vessels or takeover boxship rivals during 2019.

Skou has been restricting new investments as the group transforms into a container and logistics specialist while retaining its investment grade rating.

Maersk has earmarked around $400m to fund new ships in 2019 and this week disclosed $80m had been committed to installing scrubbers on selected vessels.