Maersk Shutters China-based Container Factory

Danish shipping group A.P. Moller-Maersk will shut a transport container factory in China and instead focus on producing refrigerated containers for food, it said on Thursday.

While the market for so-called dry containers has been squeezed by increased competition, demand for refrigerated containers has grown thanks to higher global demand for fresh produce and other commodities, Maersk said in a statement.

The company's Dongguan container factory, which has 2,240 employees and can produce 100,000 40-foot containers a year, has been idle since the beginning of December, Maersk said.

Maersk, the world's biggest container shipper, warned in November that a trade war between China and the United States would hit demand for container shipping in the coming years.

Reporting by Jacob Gronholt-Pedersen