Container trade economics – what to look for now
Making sense of a fools’ game
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By Mike Wackett
With five months of the year already gone and the crucial peak season just around the corner, the signs are that ocean carriers serving the highly competitive Asia-north Europe tradelane are feebly conceding the majority of their general rate increases within weeks of implementation.
As a consequence, the credibility of GRI announcements is probably at its lowest level for some time, and the chances of many of the loss-making carriers plying the route sustaining desperately needed freight rate increases into the ...
Comment on this article
Ricky Forman
June 03, 2014 at 3:43 pmCarriers could have hedged their income for 2014 at $1200 per teu on Asia-NW Europe so its very difficult having any sympathy for them when spot rates decline. Its not just poor market conditions attributing to Carriers losses, its their inability to risk manage correctly.