HONG KONG, Aug. 11 /PRNewswire-Asia/ -- A.P. Moller - Maersk Group, the world's largest container ship operator, said in a July 30th forecast that, due to recent deliveries of newly completed ships, which has increased overall transportation capacity, combined with deflated trade and a weak economic rebound, global idle transportation capacity will increase by 66% early next year. On August 7, Neptune Orient Lines Ltd. revealed a drastic decline of revenues and a net loss of $391 million in the first half of 2009. In addition, Israel's ZIM, Germany's Hapag-Lloyd, Orient Overseas Container Line Limited (OOCL) and a handful of other container shipping companies all forecasted huge deficits.
In contrast with these grim projections, figures from China's Ministry of Transport showed that July's rate of decrease of container shipping throughput dropped significantly. It was estimated that 10.1 million standard containers were be handled, down 3.8% over the same period last year, but up 7.4% by link relative. The decrease rate declined 6.4 percentage point from last month to the lowest one seen this year.
According to Fairtheworld.com, China's fast pick-up in foreign trade is reviving the container shipping market which depends heavily on consumer goods. In particular, China's coastal industries such as textile and footwear manufacturing are easing upwards substantially in terms of foreign trade. This will in turn further the rebound of container handling, which is estimated to see positive growth in 2009. Whereas the international shipping industry fails to excite, and is likely to take a year's time before bottoming out. This stark asymmetry will continue for some time, as the performance of the container shipping industry closely relates to the robustness of economic recovery in the U.S. and Europe.
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