Drewry forecasts further drop in global container volumes
The decline of the container market continued during the last three months, said the London (UK)-based maritime consultancy Drewry. The research company downgraded its outlook for world container port throughput for the current year and the rest of the five-year horizon in its container market annual review and forecast 2019/20.
Drewry now expects global port throughput to rise by 2.6% in 2019, down from the previous 3.0% expectation. “The weight of risks pressing down on the container market seems to be getting heavier by the day,” said Simon Heaney, senior manager, container research at Drewry and editor of the Container Forecaster.
One of the major risks identified in the report is the impact of IMO 2020 on containership supply. There is still no clear guidance on just how much additional costs it will land on the industry. Drewry’s current estimate is that operators will next year be faced with an additional USD 11 billion fuel bill related to the switchover to low-sulphur fuel oil. (fd)