The Singapore-based shipping company Neptune Orient Lines, one of the biggest competitors for Danish shipping giant Maersk Lines – has confirmed a massive decline in the amount of transported containers. NOL – which is the world’s seventh-biggest container shipper – has dropped approximately 24 percent in the last trimester of 2008 compared with last year’s result.
NOL said in a statement that its shipping arm APL carried the equivalent of 218,100 40-foot containers on its ships in the six weeks ending Dec 26. According to the news agency ‘Direkt’ the negative development predicts difficult times for the entire shipping industry. Along with increases taxed on fuel, decline in the international trade and a meager 3 percent rise – from 2,83$ to 2,92$ in the average revenue from each container – the shipping business is facing financial recession.
