Container Transportation Industry News

Orient Overseas (International) Limited and its subsidiaries announce a loss attributable to equity holders, after tax and non-controlling interest, of US$15.3 million for the six-month period ended 30th June 2013 compared with a profit of US$116.5 million for the same period in 2012. The Chairman of OOIL, Mr. C C Tung, said, “The global economy continued to be uncertain during the first half of 2013, and the container transportation industry faced the challenges of weak cargo growth, capacity oversupply and high bunker costs.

After consistent annual growth of between seven and nine percent, the global containership market is experiencing severe conditions, with the collapse in charter rates and continuing, extensive capacity additions to the fleet at a time of stagnation in the world economy. The international trade downturn, exacerbated by the broader economic impact of the terrorist outrages in the U.S., has resulted in the deferment of contracts for the much-vaunted, proposed new generation of linehaul vessels over 8,000-TEU capacity. The events in the liner sector underscore shipping's propensity for extreme market conditions, over-and-above the cyclical patterns that have traditionally been experienced in the bulker and tanker fields.

Evergreen Vice Group Chairman Chang Kuo-Cheng urged the international transportation industry to “come together – ocean carriers, ports, terminals, inland carriers and shippers – to develop new ways to protect the environment for future generations while we maintain the efficiency of our global network”. “At past industry conferences this issue might be dismissed as commercially insignificant – not something with which we as business people, transportation professionals, need be concerned. Once we have developed this foundation, Chang said: “We must educate. We must raise the awareness of the world’s people to the importance of our industry and why investment is so critical – investment from everyone worldwide.

Shares of Neptune Orient Lines Ltd (NOL) slumped as much as 6.8 percent on Monday morning after it said it expects to book a profit for the full year but that the results would be much lower than the previous year. The world's sixth largest container ship operator fell to a 17-month low of S$1.08 before crawling back to S$1.11, down $0.05 in moderate trade of more than two million shares. The Singapore Exchange had suspended the stock after its president and CEO Flemming Jacobs warned of NOL's results in local papers, saying "the expectations now are for much lower results than what we saw last year". NOL said its business would be down compared with last year and that expectations now were for much lower results than last year, which was an exceptional year for the liner industry.