STiR coffee and tea magazine

Volume 5, Number 6

Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/763665

Contents of this Issue

Navigation

Page 32 of 59

STiR coffee and tea 33 Shipping Industry Reacts to Crisis Hanjin Shipping's recent bankruptcy illustrates significant problems squeezing the ship- ping industry. Too many container ships on the seas combine with low freight rates to slash companies' profit margins, shipping analysts report. The Hanjin crisis was nearing resolution in mid-November when South Korea's Ko- rea Line was selected as the preferred bidder to purchase Hanjin's Asia-US operations. The selection came almost three months after the troubled shipper abruptly halted op- erations and left container vessels – including those carrying coffee beans and tea – and an estimated $14 billion in cargo at sea. Hanjin's fate was dictated by a combination of overcapacity among carriers and falling freight rates, experts say. "Before the (global) financial crisis, shipping companies were growing with healthy profits," said Philip von Mecklenburg-Blumenthal, director of US operations for the inter- national online freight marketplace Freightos. "Shipping is affected by globalization. If globalization declines, then shipping declines." Hanjin, at the time the world's seventh biggest shipping company, operated a fleet of more than 97 container ships, 61 of which were chartered. As freight rates tumbled and the company's debt grew, lines of credit evaporated. Hanjin applied for court receiver- ship on Aug. 31. The economic realities are not isolated to Hanjin. Major shipping companies around the world are experiencing plunging profits. A.P. Moller-Maersk suffered a 43 percent drop during the third quarter, The Wall Street Journal reported. Maersk Line, the world's biggest container operator and the parent company's shipping unit, lost $122 million. A year earlier, Maersk Line showed a $243 million profit. Von Mecklenburg-Blumenthal predicts several factors will combine to bring the in- dustry out of its doldrums. Government protection, for one, will help some lines stay afloat under the philosophy that the business is too big to fail. Taiwan's government, for example, came to the aid of Evergreen Marine Corp. and Yang Ming Marine Transport Corp. after the two companies posted a combined $580 million in losses during the first three quarters of 2016, the Journal reported on Nov. 16. The approved relief included $1.9 billion line of credit with favorable interest rates. "Many companies have government protection to prevent them from going out of business and that will slow down the concentration," von Mecklenburg-Blumenthal told STiR before the Taiwanese move. "There are more ships still ordered (to be built). It's still just basically a growth game." Consolidation, however, will be a much larger role. I believe in the Rule of 3," von Mecklenburg-Blumenthal said. "In most industries, you find three leaders in the market. I wouldn't be astonished if the end game in the shipping market is the Rule of 3. Maersk, maybe MSC (Mediterranean Shipping Com- pany) in Switzerland and who knows. This is very long term, however, a minimum of five years." - Dan Shryock Shipping operators are looking at merg- ers in order to stay afloat. And while the global shipping indus- try remains at overcapacity, removing Hanjin from routes between Asia and United States created a carrier shortage. "The collapse of Hanjin has removed significant ready capacity out of the mar- ket, allowing carriers to be more selective towards higher paying cargos and provid- ing support for previously announced general rate increases," said Donald Pi- sano, president of American Coffee Cor- poration in Jersey City, New Jersey. "I see the tightened capacity may delay some shipments of coffee out of Southeast Asia as they are boxed out by higher-paying freight," he said. "I suspect this situation may be temporary until the prevailing carriers introduce additional capacity to meet the immediate needs," he said. Back in California, Royal Coffee al- ready sees some price fluctuation. "They're shuffling everything around," Gilman said of the shipping companies. "Some are breaking contracts and some are getting customers to renew early. Shipping costs are likely to go up. "I would assume that importing costs will likely be higher in the short term. It's not too severe at this point. It seems the * All shipping images are at the Port of Oakland in Calif. Photo courtesy Royal Coffee Oakland, Calif. Container ships are arriving in US West Coast ports loaded below capacity Workers load 60-kilo bags of specialty coffee at Royal Coffee's warehouse

Articles in this issue

Archives of this issue

view archives of STiR coffee and tea magazine - Volume 5, Number 6