“Overall, it’s been a pretty positive story for 2011,” said Mr Davidson, describing the upsizing of strings on the Far East-Europe trade as “pretty much unstoppable”.
However, he did concede that the recession had changed the industry’s long term view on growth.
“It’s removed some of the short term, and if we’re honest some of the mad, investors from the port market,” he said.
For would-be investors, Mr Davidson said that there was still potential for privatisation at many ports around the world. He put the number of state owned and run terminals at 36%.
“There is still scope for privatisation in the industry, albeit in smaller terminals. The privatisation process still has a place in the industry going forward.”
In terms of future growth, the Drewry specialist expects world port throughput to be 1.1bn teu in 2020, up from 237m teu in 2000 and 542m teu in 2010.