Shipping Slump at Shanghai and the World

choi

(1) Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, Shanghai Shipping Slump as IMF Warns China on Euro Slump. Daily Telegraph, Feb 6, 2012.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finan ... -on-euro-slump.html
("The shipping specialist Lloyd's List said container traffic through the Port of Shanghai - the world's largest - fell by 100,000 boxes in January from a year earlier, or 4pc. Volumes fell by over one million tonnes. The figures may have been distorted by China's Lunar Year but there has been a relentless slide in the Shanghai transport data for months. * * * The biggest falls in container volumes have been on the Asia-Europe route")

My comment: There is no need to read the rest, which merely recapped the IMF report, whose thesis we already knew.

(2) Keith Bradsher, Freighter Oversupply Weighs on Shipowners and Banks. New York Times, Jan 26, 2012.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/2 ... european-banks.html

Quote:

"The bigger losers, though, could eventually be some big European banks * * * European banks hold about $500 billion in shipping loans on their books and face nearly $100 billion in losses to restructure them. * * * Banks in Europe have long been the world leaders in ship financing because many of the biggest fleet owners are based there.

"The biggest market for bulk carriers lies in carrying iron ore to China’s voracious steel mills. But with a real estate slowdown in China undermining demand for steel, the annual growth rate of Chinese iron ore imports has abruptly slowed since October.



Note:
(a) The "muster" in "scramble to muster capital" is a transitive verb that means:
"1a : to cause to gather : CONVENE
* * *
2a : to bring together : COLLECT"
www.m-w.com
(b) Commerzbank
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commerzbank
(second-largest bank in Germany, after Deutsche Bank; headquartered in Frankfurt; founded in 1870 by individual and merchant bankers in Hamburg)
(c) Lloyds Banking Group
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lloyds_Banking_Group
(formed through the acquisition of HBOS by Lloyds TSB in 2009)

* Bank of Scotland
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bank_of_Scotland
(section 1.5.1 Formation of HBOS: In 2001, the Bank of Scotland and the Halifax agreed a merger to form HBOS ("Halifax Bank of Scotland"))
(d) Société Générale
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soci%C3%A9t%C3%A9_G%C3%A9n%C3%A9rale
(is no. 2 French bank behind BNP Paribas; The original name was Société Générale pour favoriser le développement du commerce et de l'industrie en France (English: General Company to Support the Development of Commerce and Industry in France); The bank was founded by a group of industrialists and financiers during the second empire, on May 4, 1864, to support the development of commerce and industry in France)
(e) Baltic Dry Index
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baltic_Dry_Index
(a number issued daily by the London-based Baltic Exchange; The Baltic Exchange traces its roots to the Virginia and Baltic Coffeehouse in London's financial district in 1744)
(f) Samho Dream
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samho_Dream