Industry leaders are warning that 2012 will be a difficult year for freight and shipping.
The chairman of one of Hong Kong’s best-known logistics and transport service companies,said that decreasing rates for Asia to USA containers suggest tough times for shipping companies in particular.
The freight rate for shipping a 40-foot container from Hong Kong to Los Angeles in August, for instance, was down 30% from a year earlier, according to statistics in the latest issue of Shippers Today magazine, published by the Hong Kong Shipping Council.
Part of the reason is slow economic growth in the US, still a key Asian market. Rates are also reducing because shipping lines are stuck with orders for vessels placed on expectations of better growth.