“Geopolitical uncertainty will impact shipping in 2018”
Writing in the latest issue of “Bottom Line”, the newsletter of the Moore Stephens shipping industry group, partner Richard Greiner says, “According to a recent study, pessimists live longer than optimists, and shipping is short of neither. But the industry has always valued longevity as well as new blood, and it certainly ended 2017 in more optimistic mood than it closed the previous year.”
“In 2018, freight rates will harden if there is a further reduction in tonnage overcapacity and an acceleration in ship demolition. Money will still be available for the right investment. The geopolitical impact could be influenced in either a positive or negative way by elections in Brazil, Iraq, Italy, Mexico, Russia and elsewhere,” expects Moore Stephens.”
They add, “Shipping remains a vital global industry, carrying the vast majority of world tread while emitting a lower per-unit level of harmful emissions than any other comparable form of transport. In 2018, optimism can be expected to outweigh pessimism in the shipping industry.”