No signs of sustainable recovery: APL

APL    CONTAINER SHIPPING    OCEAN FREIGHT

China - APL president Eng Aik Meng warns that it is still premature to talk of any significant recovery within the container shipping trades.

Speaking at the third annual Transpacific Maritime Asia conference in Shenzhen, Eng said that while container volumes handled by shipping lines were showing signs of stability even small growth on some trades, it was premature to talk of significant recovery.

A sustained recovery in the liner shipping sector will require not only a strengthening in volumes but must be supported by substantial freight rate rises across all trades, said Eng, "particularly when rates in some trades remained at historic low levels that do not entirely cover the cost of running ships".

Eng highlighted to an audience of key shipping and logistics industry stakeholders the major difference the between the current downturn and previous ones was the precipitous decline in demand, which would see containerised trade in 2009 post its first contraction in more than two decades, media reports said.

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