Shipping Industry Confidence Falls – Survey

Overall confidence levels in all sectors of the shipping industry fell in the three months ended August 2012 to their lowest level for a year, according to the latest Shipping Confidence Survey from international accountant and shipping adviser Moore Stephens.
The decline to the lowest figure recorded since the survey was launched in May 2008 comes after three successive quarters of improved confidence. Chief among the concerns raised by respondents to the survey were the glut of new ship orders coming onto the market and continuing uncertainty about the global economy.

Overall confidence levels in all sectors of the shipping industry fell in the three months ended August 2012 to their lowest level for a year, according to the latest Shipping Confidence Survey from international accountant and shipping adviser Moore Stephens.
The decline to the lowest figure recorded since the survey was launched in May 2008 comes after three successive quarters of improved confidence. Chief among the concerns raised by respondents to the survey were the glut of new ship orders coming onto the market and continuing uncertainty about the global economy.
In August 2012, the average confidence level expressed by respondents in the markets in which they operate was 5.3 on a scale of 1 (low) to 10 (high), compared with the figure of 5.7 recorded in the previous survey in May 2012, and identical to the figure posted one year previously, in August 2011. The survey was launched in May 2008 with a confidence rating of 6.8.
In the container ship market, there was a 2 percentage point fall overall to 32 percent in the numbers expecting rates to go up. In the previous survey, the number of respondents anticipating higher rates over the coming year was up in all categories of respondent.
This time, it was down in all categories, with the exception of owners and charterers.
The number of container ship charterers predicting higher rates was up to 47 percent (from 41 percent previously) to its highest level since the survey was launched in May 2008 with a corresponding figure of 50 percent. In the case of container ship owners, there was a 2 percentage point increase to 37 percent, but the number of managers expecting improved rates was down by 5 percentage points to 26 percent. Expectations of improved rates were up in Asia (from 28 percent to 30 percent) and in North America (from 39 percent to 41 percent) but down in Europe by 4 percentage points to 34 percent.