Continued Slump In Shipping

Press, Volume XCVII, Issue 28523, 28 February 1958, Page 13

Continued Slump In Shipping

(N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) (Rec. 7 p.m.) LONDON, Feb. 27 A shipping slump had now lasted for eight months and no improvement was likely while owners remained willing to trade their vessels at rates resulting in losses on every voyage for as much as 12 months ahead, says the “Manchester Guardian” shipping correspondent. The case is quoted of a ship which left South Wales this week with 500 tons of coal for Dieppe for which the shipowners will get 12s 6d a ton freight, or about £312. For the same cargo a year ago the owner received £575.

’The correspondent said that hirers of ships were not philanthropists, and as long as they could find victims willing to carry their goods at less than cost they would not pay a farthing a ton more than they needed. Moreover, certain rivalry had developed between charterers dealing in similar commodities to see just how far they could push the rates down. Any new low point established in a given trade served as a signal to the next operator to try it at a few shillings a ton less. Without organised resistance from the shipowners this generally comes off. “Just who benefits from these manoeuvres is hard to see, as the sea freight element in any manufactured article or foodstuff is negligible as far as the ultimate consumer is concerned. The one tangible result is that alone among major industries shipowning is operating at a severe loss,” says the correspondent.