Recent announcements suggest that 2008 will be no different. Moreover, the growing imbalance between the headhaul southbound and northbound directions will likely result in extremely aggressive pricing policies with the result that freight rates could soften further. The latest round of changes started in the fourth quarter of 2007 when Shandong Yantai International Marine Shipping (SYIMS) was evicted from the Hamburg Sud/Hapag-Lloyd/Hyundai Merchant Marine (HMM) operating alliance and COSCON fell out with APL.
展开▼
