Worst year ever for box port growth

“The general feeling is that 8-12 times Ebitda (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization) is now the new ballpark.”

He added that 2009 will be the “worst year ever” in terms of growth for the global container port industry, with many expansion projects under review because of the slowdown and the difficulty in obtaining finance.

However, he conceded that the limited transparency on what’s been cancelled, delayed or scaled back made it difficult to comprehend the full scale of the problem.

“Nobody likes to say ‘we are stopping or cancelling’.”

However, an evident lack of profitability means that investment in terminals by shipping lines will definitely be “seriously curtailed”.

“This has major implications for the customer bases of ports and terminals and there could be a significant domino effect,” Mr Davidson warned.