Executives can make sincere noises about efficiency savings and tightening control of their costs, but sooner or later the big, awkward questions are going to be posed.

Maersk chief executive Nils Andersen was clearly hoping that this was going to be later, but when it came to it he was ready with an answer.

Redundancies are never going to be the first option. At Maersk they are currently implementing over 1,500 suggestions they have been sent direct from crew on their vessels to save costs. It is an encouraging step in the right direction, but ultimately it was never going to be enough to ease the problems of a company facing $2bn losses by the end of the year.

Job cuts are never going to be easy, but sometimes they are necessary.

Announcing just under 300 voluntary redundancies may seem like a drop in the ocean when talking about a company that has lost close to 7,000 staff over the past 18 months. But the fact that these were officer cuts prompted by the increasing lay-ups speaks volumes about the predicament of not only the company but the entire container industry.

It also seems unlikely these will be the last round of job cuts we see before things get better.

At this stage in the shake-out it is not about easy decisions, it’s about making the right decisions for the long term future of the businesses.