Carriers Playing Poker with Ports
Container shipping lines are in danger of putting future port investment at risk in their demands for terminal handling cost reductions, according to the recently launched Ports and Terminals Insight report published by global shipping consultancy Drewry. Terminal operators face a “perfect storm” of rising costs due to bigger ships, greater business risks from larger liner alliances, softening global demand growth and pressure on terminal handling prices from cash-strapped carriers. The financial results of listed port and terminal operators reveal a weakness in organic earnings amid escalating debt levels. Stricter cost rationalisation and financial risk reduction will be necessary to retain investment interest.
Seaport Real Estate Continues to Outperform Overall Industrial Market
Jones Lang LaSalle’s third annual Port, Airport and Global Infrastructure (PAGI) report published today, reveals that even amid economic volatility, real estate in the markets surrounding the country’s seaports is leading the U.S. industrial real estate recovery. Overall vacancy rates for seaports have dropped from last year by 1.4 percent to 8.5 percent, outperforming the 9.7 percent vacancy rates held by the general industrial real estate sector. “Even with a myriad of global economic challenges, seaport industrial real estate has continued to retain its premium value over inland industrial locations,” said John Carver, head of Jones Lang LaSalle’s Ports Airports and Global Infrastructure team.
