Rosy and thorny for two shipping industries

FOR the past 26 years, this column has lamented the hopeless state of liner shipping, due to the implications of containerisation and the abolition of the liner conference system.

Shipping consultant Drewry put the situation this way in a recent report: "The container industry has historically been accustomed to low margins, punctuated by only very occasional forays into significantly higher or lower performance."

At the moment, however, container carriers are doing very well. Drewry noted that the market "has never been so hot. Investors are piling in as carrier profits take off to new heights".