Friday, April 20, 2012

Rough Seas Ahead

Unfortunately 2012 will be a rough year again for shipping companies.

There is still too much tonnage coming on stream, and not enough being scrapped.

As previously stated, expect to see more VSA's (vessel sharing agreements), and
IF the carriers are smart they won't dramatically increase tonnage. I think Maersk
has had a change of heart with swearing they will maintain market share at all
costs, but who knows. They tend to flip-flop quite a lot.

And the price of oil will weigh heavily on the profits of companies. It's not easy
to get an increase in bunker surcharges when there is too much capacity.

The price of oil is coming down slightly, but I don't think we will see a big drop.
I continue to predict oil will be around $100.00 a barrel for 2012.