But shares of the world's largest container shipping company fell more than 3 percent, partly because it failed to announce any of the initiatives the market had anticipated for its investor day in Copenhagen.

Analysts had hoped that Maersk would say it had sold a big oil asset in Angola, which would have cut future capital investments, or unveil an increase in its payments to shareholders.

Instead, container shipping arm Maersk Line said it would spend $3bn a year between 2015 and 2019 on new vessels. Although the industry is suffering from oversupply, companies are ditching older and smaller ships for fewer but larger ones.

"Due to our size, we need 425,000 20-foot equivalent units delivered between 2017 and 2019," Maersk Line Chief Executive Soren Skou said. That works out to about 23 of Maersk's Triple E vessels -- the largest in the world by capacity with a length of almost four soccer pitches.

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