As the cars hiss by the window (to borrow from Jim Morrison),  I think we should take another peek at shipping stats.  This year has seen some interesting facts emerge about the number of vessels plying their trade on the world’s oceans.

Previously I looked at Chinese container manufacturers who say demand is dropping,  and so are orders for supertankers.

Today Maersk Line, which is the container shipping unit of A.P. Moeller-Maersk,  has finally admitted defeat and is to combine routes on the Asia-Europe trade because its rates are dropping.

To be blunt, Maersk Line has failed to make a profit for a number of years.

It runs something called the ICON service.  Even more interesting is that Maersk will make this change in the new Year.

The Chinese New year that is, which as we all know is February 2012.

So a number of interesting notes here.  Firstly,  that container shipping to Europe is in trouble.  Secondly,  that a Danish shipping company decides to switch operations on a specific date.  The Chinese New Year.  Not its financial year end,  or the end of the European business cycle,  but the Chinese New Year.

But there is more bad shipping news.  Orient Overseas, a container ship operator based in Hong Kong, said this morning it would cut its capacity on routes to Europe by 20%.

And it says the outlook is grim.  While Merkel and Sarkozy conduct their Teutonic/Gallic dance around the burning EU bond issue,  the real world is already talking.  And its saying that there’s likely to be a 20% drop going forward in purchases made by the middle class in Europe.   Retailers are aware,  stock purchases are down.  The outlook is not just grim,  it could be fatal for this version of the EU.

Tags: #containers, #Maersk, #shipping