“Carriers will be forced to curb their losses somehow. Service quality might be forsaken as some operators might ask what benefit they get from offering reliable port-to-port services,” said Simon Heaney, research manager at Drewry.
According to the company’s analysis, the results published in the first quarter of 2013 were “the same mixed bag of results that typified 2012” and the second quarter has been “markedly worse”, citing reports from the Asia-Europe westbound trade, where Shanghai-to-Rotterdam spot rates have lost half their value.
Heaney continues: “We expect the first step to be further slowing down on ship speeds, which in itself should not lessen reliability but will lengthen transit times even more. After that, if they are still losing cash, the incentive to offer reliable services will be sorely tested.”
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