The head of the company that owns the world’s largest container carrier has criticised rescues of struggling container lines by governments and shipowners, accusing them of “inflicting damage on the healthy part of the industry”.

Nils Andersen, chief executive of Denmark’s AP Møller-Maersk , was speaking as Maersk announced a post-tax loss of $166m for the third quarter, driven by $592m post-tax losses for its container shipping and related activities division. The division is dominated by Maersk Line, the world’s largest container line.