Maersk: Imports up, but retail cool - so box trade fragile

THE global container shipping industry remains "fragile" because of weak consumer demand and a flood of laid-up shipping in place and new ships on the way, Maersk Asia-Pacific chief Hennie van Schoor told a Singapore conference.

Shipping companies, he said, should go slow bringing back laid-up ships or the industry will only enlarge losses which have already come to US$15 billion in 2009, reported Agence France-Presse.

"The situation remains very, very fragile for the shipping industry," Mr van Schoor told Asia Pacific Maritime 2010 conference. "It is balanced on a knife's edge."

As global trade slowed during the economic crisis last year, freight rates plunged and 11 per cent of the world's container shipping fleet, or about 500 vessels, were laid up.

Mr van Schoor said there are now signs of a pickup in global trade with the United States and Europe importing more. But indications show re-stocking inventories rather than fresh consumer spending drive this.

US imports rose 13 per cent year on year in the fourth quarter of 2009. But retail sales only went up one per cent in the same period. Continental European imports were up three per cent, but again, retail sales went up only one per cent.

"What this is telling us is that the underlying demand for growth is not there yet," said Mr van Schoor,

(Source: www.schednet.com)