Container shipping has cratered, as ship owners try to avoid unprofitable trips

Post by lynx23 » Wed, May 24, 2023, 6:11 AM UTC

somethoughts wrote: post #32

CGamesPlay wrote: post #8

> The rates for both trade lanes are hovering around 2019 levels, but fuel and labor expenses are higher now than before the pandemic. Hard to really feel like this is a crisis, since all of the reporting is how there was a brief, glorious period (for the companies) of 10x prices, and the crisis is that the period is ended.

Definitely feels like there should be a "law of headlines" coined to effect of - something must always either be surging catastrophically or plummeting disatrously.

Post by blowski » Wed, May 24, 2023, 6:15 AM UTC

somethoughts wrote: post #32

CGamesPlay wrote: post #8

> The rates for both trade lanes are hovering around 2019 levels, but fuel and labor expenses are higher now than before the pandemic. Hard to really feel like this is a crisis, since all of the reporting is how there was a brief, glorious period (for the companies) of 10x prices, and the crisis is that the period is ended.

Definitely feels like there should be a "law of headlines" coined to effect of - something must always either be surging catastrophically or plummeting disatrously.

Post by subarctic » Wed, May 24, 2023, 6:20 AM UTC

somethoughts wrote: post #32

CGamesPlay wrote: post #8

> The rates for both trade lanes are hovering around 2019 levels, but fuel and labor expenses are higher now than before the pandemic. Hard to really feel like this is a crisis, since all of the reporting is how there was a brief, glorious period (for the companies) of 10x prices, and the crisis is that the period is ended.

Definitely feels like there should be a "law of headlines" coined to effect of - something must always either be surging catastrophically or plummeting disatrously.

Post by Smoosh » Wed, May 24, 2023, 6:52 AM UTC

listenallyall wrote: post #25

bandyaboot wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That’s not quite accurate. https://theloadstar.com/hapag-lloyd-racks-up-massive-3-4bn-p... > Putting the fifth-largest ocean carrier’s earnings into context, [their profit for the first three quarters of 2021 exceeded] its return from the whole of the past five years.

With all due respect, that appears to be cherry-picking. Why focus on the 5th largest company exclusively? Did the top 4 not have huge profit growth and fit comfortably into your narrative? There's also the accounting profits that may occur due to something other than simple operations, for example, if the company bought long-term fuel futures, they may have been taking an accounting loss every quarter until oil pric…

Post by anothernewdude » Wed, May 24, 2023, 7:05 AM UTC

CGamesPlay wrote: post #8

> The rates for both trade lanes are hovering around 2019 levels, but fuel and labor expenses are higher now than before the pandemic. Hard to really feel like this is a crisis, since all of the reporting is how there was a brief, glorious period (for the companies) of 10x prices, and the crisis is that the period is ended.