30OCT2019 - NEWS - Transpacific container shipping trade drifting into doldrums

The outlook for deep-water container cargo shipping companies is not getting any brighter.

Among the troubling clouds on the near horizon: multibillion-dollar fuel cost increases, a rapidly decelerating global economy and chronic capacity complications on the transpacific and other major trade routes.

Drewry estimates that container ship operators will be facing an additional US$11 billion fuel bill next year alone as a result of the required switchover to low-sulphur fuel oil. That added cost could drive some carriers into bankruptcy, which Drewry points out would be one way to rebalance the container shipping sector’s supply-demand equation.