Safe Passage Ahead - Is The Shipping Industry Unsinkable?

A rough year, survived by most

When we published our report Surviving the storm at the German Ship Finance Forum this time last year, it was clear that the industry was confronted by some of the fiercest challenges in its history. Recent years had returned only growth to liners, ship owners, ship builders, ports and other associated parts of a sprawling, global sector. But the world economic collapse hit hard and weakened each link in the shipping supply chain. The reversal in world trade trends (see graph below) had a near-immediate effect on the need for transport to move goods around the world and prices tumbled as a consequence.

The shock waves rocked the industry all the harder for the fact that it was gearing itself up for continued steep growth: decline or even stasis had previously been unimaginable and therefore had not been widely planned for, even by the most risk-averse players. So, as world demand evaporated, the industry became burdened