More signs of the “recovery”.

From The Sun Daily (Malaysia) May 2, 2012 –
– “MISC cuts 1,400 jobs – Malaysian International Shipping Corporation Bhd (MISC) is retrenching some 1,400 employees worldwide this year following its exit from the liner business.” –

From Lloyd’s List (London) May 4, 2012 –
– “Evergreen newbuildings face financial glitch. Order expected to proceed despite purchase option doubts.” –
– “CSCL gives up on options to buy four boxships. Decision not to add 10,000-TEU vessels to fleet follows heavy losses.” –
– “No end in sight for the great shipping recession. Continuing financial crisis means short-term prospects remain bleak.” –
– “Balancing Act: Only by managing capacity very carefully will carriers have any chance of making sure that recent price rises will stick.” –

From SchedNet – May 5, 2012 –
– “Israel’s Zim pleads for further delays on nine 12,600-TEU ship deliveries – Troubled Israeli container line Zim Integrated Shipping is in talks with Samsung Heavy Industries on further delivery delays for a series of nine 12,552-TEU ships ordered back in 2007.” –

From Cargo Business Newswire – May 5, 2012 –
– “‘Our customers are building bigger and bigger ships and it is imperative that we are able to increase our delivered productivity at minimum the same pace as the ships grow – but preferably much more,’ said APM Terminals’ director of project implementation in his presentation at the Future Ports conference in Stockholm, Sweden. Shipping lines require larger vessels to compete but cannot afford these megaships to remain in port for days, the director said. ‘Productivity will be the battleground for terminal operators and those who are able to meet our customers’ requirements will be the winners,’ he added …

“‘If we can improve productivity by 50 percent in a one-million-TEU-capacity terminal we create a game-changer in the industry for our customers through better economics, reliability and capacity availability,’ the APM director said.” –

Get that? Despite the admitted “great shipping recession”, container terminal owners (the local taxpayers) are being told to spend billions on expansion projects to accommodate those “bigger and bigger ships” so the owners of those leviathans- not the taxpayers – can cash in on what they like to call, “economies-of-scale”.

Now you know why we used the word “imbecility” in yesterday’s commentary.