Shanghai: It's not the owners' fault, it's the yards who are to blame for the likely prolonged downturn in shipping, said Arthur Bowring, md of the Hong Kong Shipowners Association. Speaking at the final session of TradeWinds' Shipping China Energy conference, Bowring said: "The problem is not the excess shipbuilding orders. The problem is excess shipbuilding capacity."
He reflected that the industry had seen the same situation in the 1980s where governments kept yards on life support to keep local communities employed.
Bowring estimated that shipbuilding capacity has trebled over the past five years. "We need to cut shipbuilding capacity," he concluded. [29/04/09]
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