{"id":3602,"date":"2012-08-24T17:06:21","date_gmt":"2012-08-24T21:06:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.billdawers.com\/?p=3602"},"modified":"2012-08-24T17:06:21","modified_gmt":"2012-08-24T21:06:21","slug":"bloomberg-container-lines-losing-price-battle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.billdawers.com\/2012\/08\/24\/bloomberg-container-lines-losing-price-battle\/","title":{"rendered":"Bloomberg: Container lines losing price battle"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"e26b170012445c56d240655bdd03f7bf\" data-index=\"1\" style=\"float: left; margin: 10px 10px 10px 0;\">\n<script type=\"text\/javascript\"><!--\r\ngoogle_ad_client = \"ca-pub-5595881567027133\";\r\n\/* Medium Rectangle *\/\r\ngoogle_ad_slot = \"8584504377\";\r\ngoogle_ad_width = 300;\r\ngoogle_ad_height = 250;\r\n\/\/-->\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script type=\"text\/javascript\"\r\nsrc=\"http:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/show_ads.js\">\r\n<\/script>\n<\/div>\n<p>Curiously, there&#8217;s no mention of the impending expansion of the Panama Canal in this week&#8217;s piece from Bloomberg, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bloomberg.com\/news\/2012-08-21\/container-lines-losing-price-battle-as-costs-overwhelm-freight.html\" target=\"_blank\">Container Lines Losing Price Battle As Costs Overwhelm: Freight<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>But it&#8217;s hard for anyone here in Savannah &#8212; at least anyone who is serious about empirical data that might impact projections for Georgia ports business with or without a deeper channel &#8212; to read the piece and not wonder about unforeseen consequences.<\/p>\n<p>From the article:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>The world\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s container lines can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t raise freight rates fast enough to cover soaring fuel prices as persistent overcapacity works against the industry.<\/p>\n<p>Hapag-Lloyd AG, Europe\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s fourth-biggest container company, said Aug. 14 that further increases are \u00e2\u20ac\u0153crucial\u00e2\u20ac\u009d if it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s to offset rising bunker costs &#8212; the price of fuel used on ships &#8212; and generate an operating profit this year. Still, a lack of demand forced the Hamburg-based carrier to delay a rate increase this month on routes between east Asia and northern Europe and cut a planned peak-season charge by more than half.[. . .]<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Weak fundamentals are making successful rate-restoration programs harder to implement,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Richard Ward, an analyst with ICAP, said in an e-mailed reply to questions. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Carriers are facing a struggling battle, as cargo volumes will drop off and capacity won\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t be adjusted quickly enough.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>With so many East Coast ports rushing headlong to expand capacity and with such uncertainties in global trade, I&#8217;m left wondering if the complex economic analysis of the Savannah Harbor Expansion Project by the Corps of Engineers adequately took into account various scenarios that might have seemed unlikely a few years ago.<\/p>\n<div class=\"e26b170012445c56d240655bdd03f7bf\" data-index=\"2\" style=\"float: none; margin:0px 0 0px 0; text-align:center;\">\n<script async src=\"http:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js\"><\/script>\r\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\r\n     style=\"display:inline-block;width:300px;height:250px\"\r\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-5595881567027133\"\r\n     data-ad-slot=\"4374909701\"><\/ins>\r\n<script>\r\n(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\r\n<\/script>\n<\/div>\n\n<!--CusAds0-->\n<div style=\"font-size: 0px; height: 0px; line-height: 0px; margin: 0; padding: 0; clear: both;\"><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>With so many East Coast ports rushing headlong to expand capacity and with such uncertainties in global trade, I&#8217;m left wondering if the complex economic analysis of the Savannah Harbor Expansion Project by the Corps of Engineers adequately took into account various scenarios that might have seemed unlikely a few years ago.<\/p>\n<p class=\"more-link-p\"><a class=\"more-link\" href=\"http:\/\/www.billdawers.com\/2012\/08\/24\/bloomberg-container-lines-losing-price-battle\/\">Read more &rarr;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[4],"tags":[97,26,172],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1gN9R-W6","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.billdawers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3602"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.billdawers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.billdawers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.billdawers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.billdawers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3602"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.billdawers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3602\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.billdawers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3602"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.billdawers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3602"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.billdawers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3602"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}