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.

4 comments:

Jess said...

I was really worried during my move that I wouldn't be able to find affordable prices with shipping because the gas prices just keep going up and up. I was fortunate enough to find http://urelocation.com and was really happy with their services. I don't think all shipping companies will experience a decrease, only ones that prices are not affordable.

Jess said...

I tried submitting this before but there was some sort of error. I used http://urelocation.com when I moved for my shipping needs. They were really affordable. I think as long as companies watch their costs, customers will still want to use them.

Kate Dunkin said...

Thanks for the article Lynda.How do you think
international parcel delivery
will be effected in 2012? I can also see how too much tonnage can cause a problem when it comes to shipping. I did not know the price of oil was dropping though, even if it is only a little bit. Thanks again for the read.

Lynda Applegate said...

The international parcel service
is already seeing a slowdown, and
FEDEX just announced lowest earnings since 2009.
So, once again everyone has "jumped the gun" on the world wide economy resuming the incredible growth.

From here on, I think the growth will be very slow, but it will force companies take those tough decision to become more efficient, or, sell out, merge, or go under.