THE global shipping industry downturn will remain for a “relatively long time,” China’s transport minister said yesterday.
“The unfavorable conditions the shipping industry is facing will last for a relatively long time because of surging fuel costs and decline in shipping demand,” Minister of Transport Li Shenglin said in a speech at the World Shipping (China) Summit in south China’s Hainan Province.
During the 2008 global financial crisis, shipowners were hit by overcapacity and now rising fuel costs are squeezing the margins of shipping operators and putting them in an even more difficult and stormy situation, Li added.
The Baltic Dry Index, a benchmark for commodity shipping rates, fell on Wednesday to 1,859 points, the lowest in six weeks, as cargo activities slowed globally.
China will control deliveries of vessels to avoid overcapacity that may hit shipping transport rates and earnings of shipping companies, Li said.
New orders to domestic shipbuilders in the first three quarters of this year sank 42.8 percent year on year to 29.02 million deadweight tons, the National Development and Reform Commission said earlier.
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