{"id":17676,"date":"2016-02-12T11:26:08","date_gmt":"2016-02-12T16:26:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=17676"},"modified":"2016-02-12T11:26:08","modified_gmt":"2016-02-12T16:26:08","slug":"worse-than-2008-worlds-largest-container-carrier-on-the-slowdown-in-global-trade","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=17676","title":{"rendered":"\u201cWorse than 2008\u201d: World\u2019s Largest Container Carrier on the Slowdown in Global Trade"},"content":{"rendered":"<header>\n<h3 class=\"entry-title\"><a href=\"http:\/\/wolfstreet.com\/2016\/02\/10\/worse-than-2008-maersk-global-trade-containers-oil\/\" target=\"_blank\">\u201cWorse than 2008\u201d: World\u2019s Largest Container Carrier on the Slowdown in Global Trade<\/a><\/h3>\n<h2 class=\"entry-meta\"><\/h2>\n<\/header>\n<div class=\"entry-content\">\n<div class=\"ssba ssba-wrap\"><strong>\u201cMassive Deterioration,\u201d the CEO called the phenomenon.<\/strong><\/div>\n<p>\u201cBellwether for global trade,\u201d that\u2019s how the\u00a0<em>Financial Times<\/em>\u00a0described\u00a0Maersk Lines, the world\u2019s largest container shipping company. It\u2019s owned by Danish conglomerate AP M\u00f8ller-Maersk, which also owns, among other divisions, Maersk Oil. The conglomerate reported fourth quarter earnings today. And they were a doozie.<\/p>\n<p>Maersk B shares plunged over 9% to 7,395 Danish kroner, before bouncing off and closing at 7,875, down 3.6% for the day and down a breath-taking 52% from their peak on March 30 last year.<\/p>\n<p>Global economic slowdown \u2014 o<em>r worse?<\/em>\u00a0That\u2019s the question.\u00a0This is what CEO Nils Andersen told the\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.ft.com\/intl\/cms\/s\/2\/1d8fd496-cfd1-11e5-986a-62c79fcbcead.html\" target=\"_blank\">Financial Times<\/a>\u00a0in an interview after the earnings release:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u201cIt is worse than in 2008. The oil price is as low as its lowest point in 2008-09 and has stayed there for a long time and doesn\u2019t look like going up soon. Freight rates are lower. The external conditions are much worse, but we are better prepared.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>\u201cBetter prepared,\u201d that is, than the Group had been in 2008.<\/p>\n<p>He called global trade conditions \u201cabnormal.\u201d Containerized imports to Europe, Brazil, Russia, and West Africa all fell \u2013 in Europe and Brazil due to various economic reasons; in oil exporters Russia and West Africa due to the collapse in the price of oil.<\/p>\n<p>The earnings report reflected it: in terms of seaborne container freight, the year had started out with some room for optimism and hopes for growth, but in the second half, and particularly in the fourth quarter, those hopes got hammered by an increasingly gloomy reality.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMassive deterioration,\u201d Andersen called this phenomenon in the interview.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAcceptable full-year result in challenging times,\u201d is what the Group called the phenomenon in its\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/files.shareholder.com\/downloads\/ABEA-3GG91Y\/1489301890x0x874222\/FC66319B-61C6-41B0-9D44-036C4D319E69\/Maersk_presentation_Annual_Report_2015.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">earnings report<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>&#8230;click on the above link to read the rest of the article&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cWorse than 2008\u201d: World\u2019s Largest Container Carrier on the Slowdown in Global Trade \u201cMassive Deterioration,\u201d the CEO called the phenomenon. \u201cBellwether for global trade,\u201d that\u2019s how the\u00a0Financial Times\u00a0described\u00a0Maersk Lines, the world\u2019s largest container shipping company. It\u2019s owned by Danish conglomerate AP M\u00f8ller-Maersk, which also owns, among other divisions, Maersk Oil. The conglomerate reported fourth quarter [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[12314,8262,12335,3761,12313,4856,4254,4255],"class_list":["post-17676","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-economics","tag-containerized-shipping","tag-financial-times","tag-global-economic-slowdown","tag-global-trade","tag-maersk","tag-shipping","tag-wolf-richter","tag-wolfstreet"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17676","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=17676"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17676\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17677,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17676\/revisions\/17677"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=17676"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=17676"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=17676"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}