Inconsistency in world shipbuilding

摘要

The global economic recovery has not gained momentum, yet. After further negative adjustments of its forecasts the IMF estimates just 3.1% growth rate for the global economy in 2015. World trade is lacking drive. The forecasts were also corrected for the worse, so that the estimation in late 2015 is a growth rate of 3.2%. These low growth rates in the global economy therefore do not qualify for new impetus in investment behaviour in the shipping industry. Favourable financing conditions with constantly low interest rates and low bunker prices did little to change this situation. On the other hand, the decrease in oil prices, overcapacity in individual market segments of the world merchant fleet, and high order backlogs had a negative impact on the propensity to invest. The overcapacity problem further depresses freight rates.