' Major shipping nations'

摘要

"In the sixth year of the global maritime shipping crisis, the competitiveness of Germany as a maritime location is more endangered than ever before," said Ralf Nagel, Chief Executive Officer of the German Shipowners' Association (VDR) at a presentation of a shipping study by the auditing firm PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC). "The capacity utilisation of vessels remains completely unsatisfactory. The earnings situation continues to be extremely difficult, especially in the container shipping segment. For this reason, the companies need to exploit all potential cost reductions possible in order to stay on the market." As the PwC study shows, this also includes selling ships and investing in new, more reasonably priced and more efficient vessels. However, the outsourcing of corporate activities abroad needs to be taken into account by an increasing number of companies owing to the immense cost pressure in the location of Germany. What is particularly impacted by this is the personnel deployed, the need to organise cargo for the vessels and maintenance work on the fleet.