Challenged to find bright spots

ICF International vice president, global lead ports & logistics, Dr Jonathan Beard offered up India and China as continued bright spots as both, he said, remain relatively stable and are moving in the right direction. He added that the rationalisation of shipping lines currently taking place should be seen as a ‘positive’.

Rickmers Maritime chief executive, Soeren Andersen pointed to levels of ship recycling that are now twice the levels they were just 12 months ago. This will go some way towards addressing the excess ship capacity on the seas. Additionally, he said: “It seems like there is a strengthening in volumes and hopefully this will improve utilisation rates.”

ICF International’s Ben Hackett said that US consumers have so far not been spooked by the situation on the US stock markets, which means that the flow of cargo into North America will remain relatively strong.

Gulftainer’s Iain Rawlinson remarked on improvements in transparency which, he said, is “generally encouraging for world trade”.

Meanwhile, RoyalHaskoningDHV director Jason Chiang quipped that the incoming SOLAS amendments requiring verified gross mass certification of all containers will put an end to box weight under-declaration, which will artificially boost volumes at terminals.