The Economist – Page 8
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The Silly Season
The summer period of vacations, leaving offices and governments with skeleton staff, is known as the "silly season" in the UK and the "dead season" in France. There are few events of newsworthiness and news readership drops dramatically.
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If you did not anticipate it, blame the economists
The last two weeks has made me think that it is time to change professions. Being an economist is becoming unpleasant. Reading the newspapers and attending industry conferences can be very depressing. Why does everyone like to pick on economists when the shipping executives make irrational decisions?
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Terminal Capacity Expansion Slows
With the liner shipping industry facing a calamitous year as a result of excessive over capacity and falling demand one would expect a similar pattern to emerge on the landside with the terminal operators.
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Recovery Beyond the Crash of 2009
An interesting psychological makeup is prevalent in the shipping industry: it is forgetful of the past and assumes that the present rules the future.
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Port Investments get a setback
The great global recession, which continues to threaten to turn into a new great depression, is beginning to have an impact on port investments.
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Economic Reality
It is not often that we can clearly identify distinct changes in economic realities but we can safely say that September 2008 was just such a critical time point.
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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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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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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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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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NewsBulk Into Containers
The global shipping market is in somewhat of a flux, with a possible world recession, sharply fluctuating bulk shipping rates and liner rates trying to decide what to do.
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NewsInland Ports - The New Way
When we talk about North European ports today, we tend to focus on the Le Havre-Hamburg range of deepsea ports and associate those ports with congestion. True, false or misconception?
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"Glimmer of Hope"
The shipping-related industry is suffering as it never has done before: ships are being laid up in record numbers, bulk companies are going under, ship orders are being cancelled or delayed, and profitability is but a dream.
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NewsDisappearing Container Capacity
Recent forecasts and press comments suggest that the major East-West liner trades are suffering weaker growth rates than had been anticipated. The US recession has caused transpacific trade volumes to decline sharply from nearly 10% growth in 2006 to only 2.2% to North America as a whole in 2007. For ...
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NewsPort Reform and the Art of Privatisation
At a recent maritime and logistics conference in Israel, (Port2Port) the Israeli ports of Haifa and Ashdod were heavily represented, as was the Port of Aqaba, Jordan, and the subject of port reform and privatisation was high on the agenda.
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NewsPort Congestion: Fact or Myth?
The topic of port congestion is never far from headlines and conference presentations. I have argued in the past that it is more of a management and space utilisation issue than an actual physical space issue.
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Risk, Uncertainty and the Spectre of a Recession
The US ended 2007 with the spectre of a recession hanging over it while Asia and Europe were riding on a high, expecting 2008 to be another year of growth and prosperity. The financial crisis was working its effects on the markets and banks continued to face financial losses.
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Economic Reality May Bite
The human mind is an interesting thing. It can recognise economic facts, stare them in the face and then reach the conclusion that reality is not based on what we see.
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NewsEconomic Principles: Ignore Them At Your Peril
I woke with a start this morning with the realisation that economics is alive and well. What caused this? The public statements by transportation providers trying to convince us otherwise. Let me give you some examples.
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Caught Between a Very Public and a Somewhat Private Place
During a recent visit to Egypt my attention was caught by the enthusiastic expansion plans for the Egyptian port sector, particularly on the Mediterranean coast.
