Maersk officials see container rates edging up in 2010
Container carrier says rates will not remain this low next year
Dave Hannon -- Purchasing, 11/19/2009 1:42:58 PM
Officials at ocean container shipping giant AP Moeller Maersk said this week container volumes will grow as much as 8% next year and shipping rates will in turn trend up from their current lows.
Maersk Line container unit CEO Elvind Kolding said in a
recent news report that the shipping line's freight rates had plunged 30%
in the first nine months of 2009, but that rates may firm up and even increase
in 2010, as demand increases. And Maersk CEO Nils Smedegaard told analsyts that "Rates
are coming up, rates are edging back up. But they are still below the entry
le
vel of 2009 and are not rising faster than bunker (fuel) so if we take the
bunker factor out, rates are still below the first half of 2009."
As reported earlier this month on Purchasing.com, ocean container shippers are pushing freight rate increases in the Pacific.
Container volumes are the topic of much speculation in the logistics industry. In a recent report, analsyts at KeyBanc said they anticipate "sequential declines in container volumes through 1Q10. However, with inventory levels lean, we believe replenishment activity could take place in early 2010, and representatives from Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach (which combined represent one-third of domestic import actvity) expect container imports to increase 4% in 2010 and 7% in 2011, implying steady improvement in container activity."
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