Insight and Opinion – Page 45
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Lessons From The Recession
Who would have guessed in mid 2007 that carriers would be laying up ships, ship owners agreeing to charter rates that are as good as rock bottom and container freight rates at peppercorn levels? Sure, there are economists, this one included, who had warned that things might well slow down, ...
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NewsDecember 2008 USA "New Yorker" opinion
After what seemed like an eternity, the results of the 2008 US elections are now known. Even though the new Obama administration actually takes office in late January 2009, transition planning is in full force.
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Cooking up a storm in Lebanon
Some interesting plans are brewing in Beirut. Informed sources indicate that the Beirut port management is planning a port extension which will incorporate a new container terminal facility developed specifically for use by CMA CGM and the Mediterranean Shipping Company, a dedicated facility.
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Perfect storm
With credit running dry and real costs spiralling, the UK''s revision of business rates for port operators could not have come at a worse time. And when that revision slaps bills running into millions of pounds on the desks of large and small operators alike, the nation''s port sector can ...
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NewsBarry Parker opinion Oct 20-2008
Infrastructure is a good investment: if there is any doubt about that, look to reports of the Panama Canal Authority securing multi-lateral bank funding of $2.3bn.
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Missing the X factor
There are new quay cranes being installed on the quayside in Cape Town and other major investments underway designed to realise a comprehensive upgrade of the container terminal, but does this really spell a better future ahead for port users?
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That Sinking Feeling
Franklin Roosevelt was quoted as saying: "We have nothing to fear but fear itself." That fear has struck hard globally. We are experiencing the roller coaster world of the financial markets, the unwillingness of banks to lend money and the collapse of consumer confidence and demand. None of this is ...
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Star performer
No one wants to contribute to talking ourselves into a recession, least of all this column, but given that we are now genuinely experiencing a rough ride in financial and economic terms it does seem appropriate to highlight the importance of achieving a consistently good performance in the port industry, ...
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The idiot's guide to recession riding
Are you bombproof? Can you weather these times of economic and financial turbulence? A few suggestions that might help and if some are a little tongue in cheek then the times dictate the need for humour too! So here''s what to have in your recession survival kit:
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Viewpoint
There has been a flurry of activity recently on the part of shipping lines either individually or collectively rationalising service networks or announcing their withdrawal from them. Underpinning this is the slump in world trade, a steadily increasing gap between available liner capacity and demand, and freight rates which on ...
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Barry Parker USA Opinion
Port Strategy articles on financial subjects, including a few I have written, invariably include some mention of public-private partnerships, which have enabled ports around the world to modernise and cope with increases in trade flows. Each mention of PPP is a tacit acknowledgement that the private sector (with proper oversight) ...
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October 17, 2008 - The end of an era in Europe
October 17th marks the end of the block exemption for liner shipping conferences in the European Union. The shipping companies will be forced to comply with anti trust laws in line with all other industries.
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Crossing the lines
The message coming out of the liner shipping markets is one we have heard before - "it is time to tighten your belts in anticipation of lean times ahead". This action involves cutting back on available capacity in key services, implementing slow steaming where possible and cutting back on expansion ...
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PS PAGE
Russia''s recent advance into Georgia belies the profile of a country that does not yet fully respect democratic principles and which is steered by powerful individuals that have their own agenda in terms of the direction that Russia will pursue politically, economically and in the commercial world. Practically speaking, there ...
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THE STRATEGIST
What is it they say, you have no friends in business? Well it seems that Maersk Line, the world''s leading container line in terms of slot capacity, is set to prove this old adage.
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The Alphabet Recession Scenarios and Irrational Exuberance
It used to be that recessions were linked to parachuting. Soft landings, hard landings, crash landings... The world is changing. Today there is not a day that passes without some new letter of the alphabet creeping into the economic recession language trying to explain the type, depth and length of ...
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NewsBarry Parker opinion Sept t 2008
The election season is in full swing; with the official nominating conventions, the "presumptive candidates" will become their parties'' true nominees. While analysts believe that it will be a "Democratic year", ie Barrack Obama could win, political campaigns have a habit of twisting, turning and surprising.
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Africa is coming
There is always a new frontier in the international port business. And as at the time of writing the G8 group is convened, it is most relevant to focus on Africa, an area where there is major scope to refine port systems and particularly along the east and west coasts ...
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NewsCongestion bites
"Congestion" - is it our imagination or is it the case that we don''t hear so much about this problem nowadays? If this is the case then it clearly isn''t a result of the problem going away but rather that it has become an accepted part of commercial life.
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NewsBarry Parker - opinion submit July/Aug
Port workers in 29 ports along the US West Coast (including approximately 20,000 in Los Angeles/ Long Beach) refused, at the start of July, to extend an earlier contract and are now negotiating with the Pacific Maritime Association on a new agreement while continuing to work.
