REALITY OR JUST A FALSE SENSE OF HOPE?

摘要

The maritime industry has been a bastion of hope over many decades even when supply and demand disparity grew, and excessive capacity was built both in the vessel and port terminal sectors. The lack of any reasonable return of investment and lack of profi tability also did not defeat the sense of optimism and that things would get better in a year or two. The competitive adrenalin has fl own through the management decision making for the past thirty years or more. Despite the lacklustre financial performance compared to other service industries, investment has always been at hand and insolvency few and far between thanks to the ownership structure within the industry, reliant as it is, on the state underpinning failing companies. This remains true in the current COVID-19 crisis.