Bimco's maritime outlook for 2020
The Baltic and International Maritime Council (Bimco), the major international maritime association, with 2,100 members in more than 120 countries, has revised its forecasts for maritime transport for this year, due to the pandemic of the coronavirus Covid-19, which is already affecting 170 countries worldwide.
Besides the global health emergency, Bimco highlights two other major issues: the geopolitical tensions caused a fall in the price of oil and fuel and the fact that the first phase of the agreements to limit the effects of the trade war between China and the United States did not significantly increase traffic during the month of January.
Given this situation, it is essential for Bimco that world political leaders launch economic stimulus measures that maintain the purchasing power of companies and individuals to mitigate the impact of more than foreseeable layoffs and widespread bankruptcies.
Regarding container ships, China has begun to recover its production capacity and has already reached around 75%, but it will be necessary to see how demand behaves in the medium and long term, in view of how the pandemic evolves in Europe and North America.
For 2020, Bimco forecasts losses in this segment, due to the aforementioned imbalance between supply and demand and the increase in fuel costs caused by the entry into force of the new IMO sulphur limit. In summary, for Bimco the slowdown may be even more pronounced than it was after the 2008 financial crisis. (mw)