'Provisional figures for February suggested a 9.6% slump year-on-year'

摘要

With the past month witnessing share price collapses on several stock exchanges around the world, a further plunge in the value of the US dollar against most currencies and the price of oil galloping up to, and then beyond, USDllO/barrel, these make for extremely uncertain times for world trade. And liner shipping, it seems, could be more exposed than other sectors of the global maritime transport industry. In the US, for instance, traffic volumes in the all important eastbound transpacific trade are continuing to slow.