Posted on 05/27/2009 7:46:35 PM PDT by Vince Ferrer
The world’s shipping lines may double the number of idled container carriers to 20 percent of the global fleet amid a surge in new vessels and as the recession saps demand , said First Ship Lease Trust’s Philip Clausius.
“It’s the start of the crisis,” said Clausius, chief executive officer of First Ship, which leases 23 vessels. “There are too many container ships coming on line and not enough demand,” he said in an interview in Tokyo yesterday.
A.P. Moller-Maersk A/S, the world’s largest container line, and other shipping companies have anchored vessels as demand to move electronics, furniture and building supplies slumps. There are 910 container ships on order, according to data compiled by Bloomberg, compared with 537 idled container vessels, or 11 percent of the total fleet, Lloyd’s List said.
The global economy is in the grip of a severe recession with “worrisome parallels” to the Great Depression and a recovery will probably be weak, the International Monetary Fund said April 16. The world economy will shrink 1.3 percent this year, Washington-based IMF said last month.
“We’ve been getting reservation for lay-ups as we only have a limited number of slots,” said Lucas Chong, a manager at Wilhelmsen Ship Management Singapore Pte., part of Wilh. Wilhelmsen ASA, the world’s third-largest shipper of automobiles. “The lay-ups we’re managing will probably double in the next couple of months.” Wilhelmsen Ship Management is currently managing 22 mothballed ships after starting the service earlier this year, Chong said.
Global container lines could rack up losses totaling $10 billion this year, Lloyd’s List said, citing Mitsui O.S.K. Lines Ltd. President Akimitsu Ashida.
when the shipping bus can’t get any worse we can probably start looking for a base.
I understand there is also a glut of shipping containers in the US. They’re made mainly in China, sent here filled, and we don’t fill them with....anything. Or send them....anywhere.
Better get a couple for the fam to set up residence. A couple more years of the Kenyan, you’ll be seeing people erecting entire cities made of these.
Interest rates soaring, housing collapsing further, rail car loadings collapsed, container ships being idled, insufficient capital around the globe to meet the demands of the major industrialized nations, Washington threatening massive tax hikes with C&T and VAT, nationalization of healthcare, government abrogation of contracts, politicization of which Chrysler dealers to sack, extreme radical SCOTUS nominee...yet consumer confidence is supposedly way up and the stock market pulls higher and higher.
Something’s rotten in Denmark.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.