Industry Marketing News

Owners fear rate drop

The return of idle capacity and an increase in the level of newbuilding deliveries in the first four months of this year will add an estimated 785,000 TEUs of new capacity to the liner trades, reports Alphaliner.
   Shipping owners now fear that the newly introduced tonnage will affect the rates.
   “An imprudent re-introduction of capacity currently idling or laid-up, if mismatched to demand, could see fresh rounds of rate cutting”, says Orient Overseas (International) Limited chairman C C Tung.
   The threat of price-cutting is a reality; in the Far East-Europe sector, spot rates have fallen USD 310/FEU in the space of two weeks.

Pierre Adolfsson