PLANNING THE NEXT GENERATION

摘要

I t pays to look ahead, as the Master of the Titanic instructed his watchkeeping officers, and while the shipping industry is clearly facing some economic icebergs, they won't last forever. This year and next are going to be tough times in most sectors, with the overhang of orders which seems an inevitable legacy of about three weeks of decent freight rates, and what could not be cancelled after the 2008 collapse. One thing is very sure and that is eventually, as the final orders in this tonnage bulge are extruded from the shipyards, those same shipbuilders will be nervously looking at the huge white spaces in their advance bookings, thinking perhaps of the green grass that quickly grows over inactive building docks and slipways.