Mega-Ships May Be Too Big Not to Fail - Bloomberg View
▻https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2016-09-14/mega-ships-may-be-too-big-not-to-fail
It was always going to be tough for the world’s container shipping lines — accustomed to decade after decade of growth in the volume of video-game consoles, auto parts, furniture, frozen seafood and all manner of other things transported in boxes across the sea — to adjust to a slowdown in global trade.
What has made it a whole lot tougher is that, not long before trade peaked as a share of global gross domestic product in 2008, container shippers began adding capacity at an even faster pace than they had before. Container traffic has actually held up better than bulk shipping (which is heavy on raw materials like iron ore) and oil tankers, with volume still growing in the low single digits annually. But capacity growth has far outstripped demand.
