'It was the best of times, it was the worst of times' – container shipping in 2015

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To quote Charles Dickens: “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times…” This seems to aptly sum up the two halves of 2015 for container lines, which began the year with optimism but are ending it again looking into a loss-making abyss.

Bullish ocean carriers started the year eyeing improved profitability from better network optimisation of the new east-west vessel sharing alliances, as well as a reduction in unit costs by deploying newbuild 18,000 teu-plus ultra-large container ...