When will the next shipping recovery for container industry arrive?

The container industry is one of the busiest sectors in the shipping industry. Since the 2008 global financial crisis, the container industry is not in good health. With slow demand growth and overcapacity issues lingering, the health of the industry has been exceptionally depressing for industry players, especially from the year 2015 onwards. The purpose of this paper is to determine when the next shipping recovery will arrive for the container industry and how shipping companies can ride through this tough cycle. Based on past shipping cycle, the container industry is mainly affected by the economy, and which recovery is either due to the rise in demand or the reduction in supply. In this regard, this paper analysed the market fundamentals through supply and demand indicators. For the supply indicators, global fleet capacity can be discussed based on order-book deliveries, idle ship rate and scrapping activity. As for the demand indicators, world economy, containerized trade volume, geopolitical issues and technologies are examined. To analyse the market drivers and the freight rates, both qualitative and quantitative methods are used. Statistics are obtained from market reports, shipping news and journal articles while surveys and interviews are used to shows a comprehensive view of industry players. The analysis shows that it is not easy to conquer this heavy storm and the container lines should be prepared to overcome headwinds.Bachelor of Science (Maritime Studies