Shipping and the sun spot theory of economic cycles

In the world of shipping we have eternal optimists who would have us believe that growth in trade has reached runaway proportions and will not stop in the foreseeable future. There is hardly a week that goes by without a leading senior executive telling us that double digit growth in container volumes is unstoppable and that the rationale for ever larger ships cannot be questioned. This said, they go on to warn us of ever increasing congestion. The fact that these very same large ships discharging 3,000-4,000 plus containers at a time at a very limited number of ports is one of the root causes of that congestion is not discussed.