Maersk gambles on cargo volumes

From suffering US$ 2.09 bn losses for 2009 in its container shipping and back to US$ 4.9 bn profits in 2010 primed initially by slow-steaming, Maersk is now making a record-breaking order for 18,000-teu ships that is raising again the specter of overcapacity on major liner trades.  Their sheer size means they can only be fully utilized on the Far East-to-Europe trades. Dependence on a single route has led some to remember the ill-fated ultra large crude carriers (ULCCs) of the 1970s.
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Source: Gerson Lehrman Group