Report quantifies carrier losses during ‘worst period in 55 years’

Contrary to expectation, the worst period in 55 years of container shipping did not result in any casualties among the top 25 carriers – although it did not leave them particularly unscathed, according to the 9th edition of Netherlands-based Dynamar’s annual Top 25 Container Liner Operators publication. The survey covers the period August 2009-December 2010. Their survival would not have been possible without the readiness of their financiers and other stakeholders to save them from the brink of collapse, says Dynamar. The profound financial restructuring some of them have gone through, including CMA CGM, CSAV, Hapag-Lloyd and ZIM, is among the many topics discussed in the report. The carriers that reported financial results saw their 2009 combined revenue falling by 30% year-on-year, leading to a total loss (for all 25) of US$ 16.2 billion. This translates into an (operating) loss per container of no less than US$ 229 per each TEU carried worldwide. Variation between the lines was substantial: between a minus of just 1 US dollar for Wan Hai of Taiwan and a mind-boggling US$ 419 loss per TEU for Malaysian MISC Berhad.