Comments on: The Flip Side of Globalization

By: PD Shaw

PD Shaw — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 19:50:04 +0000

I wonder if there are any consequences for ships flying flags of convenience in this economy. Sepecifically, if they are going to park for a substantial amount of time, do they need to return to Liberia or Panama or the Bahamas?

By: DC Loser

DC Loser — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 17:51:17 +0000

Just came back from a trip to Hong Kong. Driving to and from between the airport and Central Hong Kong, I didn't notice any ships idling. Perhaps they were berthed way way out in the ocean out of view of the port, but I only saw a few ships berthed at the docks and then some in the shipyards.

By: odograph

odograph — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 16:59:36 +0000

Here we go, the number of ships layed up worldwide is in the hundreds. Not hundreds in Singapore alone as those hated photos imply:

Hundreds of vessels have been laid up worldwide as container lines try to boost rates depressed by U.S. and European consumers paring spending on Asian-made furniture, toys and other goods. Still, with shipyards set to deliver the largest amount of container ships by capacity in at least 15 years in 2009, lines may still struggle to post profit

Subic Bay has a whole 19 ships. I suspect that is more typical of a single location's surplus.

By: odograph

odograph — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 16:54:22 +0000

oops, closer to '87

By: odograph

odograph — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 16:53:43 +0000

Well, having been there and seen the port, I suspect a skew in these numbers that someone else might not:

With world trade plummeting for the first time since 1982, the long-bustling port has become a maritime parking lot in recent weeks, with rows of idled freighters from Asia, Europe, the United States, South America, Africa and the Middle East stretching for miles along the coast. "We're running out of space to park them," said Ron Widdows, chief executive of Singapore-based NOL, one of the world's largest container lines.

The parked freighters at the "long bustling port" looked to me like a D-Day invasion fleet somewhere around 1997. The guy says he is running out of room ... ok, but I know what it looked like when he started.

By: Dave Schuler

Dave Schuler — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 16:42:03 +0000

The story has the numbers, odograph. They've got so many ships parked, they're running out of space to park them in.

By: odograph

odograph — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 16:33:24 +0000

Heh, maybe I'm being a curmudgeon ... I know the ports traffics are down around the world ... but hate that picture.

By: odograph

odograph — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 16:32:09 +0000

We can look at the numbers, but for what it's worth, I flew into Singapore 20 years ago and the scene offshore looked to me like the old movies of D-Day invasion. They had a massive parked fleet.

It is after all a major trans-shipment hub, and not so much a source or destination.

There may be a story here, but I can't help people who propagate these pictures don't know the normal Singaporean scene.

(Now, I do see a few ships parked off Long Beach, which is unusual, from the 20-year perspective.)