According to a new survey by the Norton Rose Group, the Asia Pacific is catching up with Europe in terms of being a key market for the shipping sector, an important factor for future port investment and development.
The fourth “The Way Ahead – Where are you now?” transport survey interviewed 1,000 respondents from around the world from the shipping, aviation and rail sectors.
Philip Roche, co-head of shipping, Norton Rose, said: “In line with the development of China and India as economic powers, Asia has been the most buoyant shipping market for a number of years. Singapore has successfully positioned itself as an increasingly important legal and financial centre for shipping and this trend will doubtless continue.”
The survey also revealed that shipping is looking at a far wider range of funding options than the aviation and rail sectors in order to achieve growth – with most of the respondents saying that this is down to the fact that the shipping sector was hit harder than the other transport sectors during the financial crisis.
Over a quarter (26%) of respondents are now using or considering using structured finance for the first time and 23% are using or considering using private equity for the first time. Many respondents said that private equity will be their primary source of funding over the next two years.
This is key because only last week, IHS Global Insight’s Rajiv Biswas told delegates at TOC Asia in Hong Kong that Asia looks set to continue to be the fastest growing economy over the next decade. And this presents an important opportunity that private investors increasingly want to take advantage of.
But there is still work to be done to make growth happen. Mr Biswas pointed out that Indonesia needs to invest heavily in port infrastructure because port development is one of the key bottlenecks for Indonesian development. This needs be tackled before growth can fully be realised.
