China Tells

The Baltic Drybulk Index (BDI, which is the indicator for the freight industry worldwide) collapsed from its peak in mid 08. Since then, the ship builders are entering into a tough period of life. That includes the yards in China (See ARticle from China Daily). One of the big ship builders in China, Liaoning Marine, is reported to slash the price of new ship order by 40% to compete for business. Most shipping lines across the world are reporting losses as the world container spaces are reported to be at least 10% idle (See Article from Chinatells). In addition, Chinese ship builders are hit by a double whammy of A) drastic increase in capacity; B) economic downturn globally. China’s shipping industry is one of the typical sectors bearing an obvious over capacity that could suffer in the forseeable future.

中国船运业在近来受到双重打击。一来整个行业在过去几年由于高额运费急速扩张，据不完全统计中国造船吨位在6年间上升了525%，在全世界属于罕见。二来由于经济危机，全球贸易量减少20%左右，因此对船运的需求也相应减弱。2010和2011年新船从船坞竣工的数量将达到顶峰，届时那些船东和造船厂的命运很难让人看好。