The Hindu Business Line : Container demand may fall

The world container demand will drop 10 to 20 per cent or even more in 2008 if another economic crisis occurs, according to China Container Industry Association. It will be so different from the situation in 2007, when the container demand reached its peak, the sale volume being 3.92 million TEUs, of which 3.75 million TEUs were produced in China alone, a spokesperson for the association has been quoted as saying in Shipping Gazette.

Meanwhile, according to one estimate, the US box traffic in 2008 is likely to remain below the level of 2007. In March, the US ports handled 1.16 million TEUs of import containers, down 4.8 per cent from February and represented the lowest monthly volume since the 1.11 million TEUs in February 2006.

Compared with March 2007, the decline was 8.5 per cent. The April throughput is estimated at 1.28 million TEUs, down 3.2 per cent from a year ago. The forecast is that the present trend will continue till September as, according to projections, the May throughput at 1.31 million TEUs will be down 4.8 per cent, the June throughput at 1.35 million TEUs to be down 7 per cent and July at 1.41 million TEUs down 2 per cent.

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