Shipping Puts All Our Problems in the Shade [Edition 3]

Evening Standard - London › July 29, 2009

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Summary

BACK in early June, following the BIMCO shipping industry conference in Athens, this column warned of the looming disaster in shipping. Yesterday came news that one of the largest container operators, the German firm Hapag-Lloyd, is desperately seeking Pounds 250 million of new capital to stave off disaster. It is not the first. It is unlikely to be the last.

Of all the industries in the world facing problems of over- capacity in the face of declining demand, none is in worse shape than shipping. The motor industry may be on its knees, the airlines flying half empty and the leisure industry wondering where the next customer is coming from, but shipping has an over-capacity problem worse than anything in the last 50 years.

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Shipping Puts All Our Problems in the Shade [Edition 3]

It has only itself to blame -- unless you include the bankers who indulged the owners in their orgy of sp...

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