Another tough year ahead

“Size isn’t everything” Drewry concludes, with the launch of a new “global port connectivity index” showing sometimes smaller ports have better connectivity than their larger competitors.

Lower growth and challenges from industry consolidation will make it difficult to develop new greenfield terminals, TOC conference hears.

In a recent webinar, London-based Drewy Maritime Advisors pointed to a stronger 2017 for liner shipping companies with volumes and freight rates both expected to pick up during the course of the year.

Container shipping lines are in danger of putting future port investment at risk in their demands for terminal handling cost reductions, according to the latest Ports and Terminals Insight report from Drewry

At the same conference, a panel debate on industry trends concluded that container terminal automation had more to do with cutting labour costs than raising lift rates per crane per hour. Since shipping lines started phasing in mega ships of 18,000 TEU, they have called on their terminal/stevedoring vendors to raise productivity levels and to handle these vessels in similar time periods to their 8,000-12,000 TEU size vessels.

Will 22,000 TEU-class containerships be the largest to be built before diseconomies of scale set in? This became a part of the debate at Container Supply Chain conference in Rotterdam this week.