It’s easy to play with numbers to make them look good or bad, but some things don’t change. The economy is based on trade, and if the ships aren’t moving we’re not in a good place.
Just off the coast of southern Malaysia there is a ghost fleet forming. Right now there are over 500 freighters there with no cargo and no crews. An Aframax oil tanker that can carry 80,000 tons of cargo would have cost $50,000/day to hire a year ago – today costs just $5,500.
What we see in the physical world is more often an accurate representation of reality than the numbers we read. 12% of the world’s container ships are doing nothing right now, with that number expected to rise to 25% within a few years.
Are we still sitting in the calm before the real economic storm?
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