Asian economic performance is said to have experienced a decline as export orders have dropped significantly from regional countries as a result of a slowing of activity from Chinese factories, a factor that has been manifested through a slump in demand for container ships, according to Reuters India.
PTI previously reported that the global shipping industry was at risk of bankruptcy after the financial crisis of 2008 had forced shippers to sell their assets in a bid to survive.
Frederic Neumann, Co-Head of Asian Economics Research at HSBC in Hong Kong, said: “Everything is signalling a further slowdown in the global trade cycle. Nothing suggests a turnaround soon. We're not even seeing a big pick-up following the US West Coast strike closure earlier this year.”
Port operations had returned to normal after the initial labour strike, despite fears that the momentous backlog of containers would take months to shift.
Labour strikes have since returned, which raises concerns that Asian trade activity could slump further and therefore continue to affect container shipping lines.
Russia has also seen poor economic activity recently, with terminal operator Global Ports seeing a sharp decline of 4.3% in its container volumes year-on-year to around 2.6 million TEU.
