The Change Mariner

Asian Exporters Face Shortage of Cargo Ships, Containers

VOANews.com:

Business is booming for Asia's exporters. That is good news for the world economy, but companies are facing a shortage of cargo ships and containers in Asia, and logjams on the docks in the United States.

A line of trucks moves forward to a gantry crane that lifts a 4,000-kilogram container off a truck every two minutes and glides it onto the deck of the OOCL Osaka. After the Hong Kong-owned ship calls at Nagoya, Kobe and Osaka, it heads to China, loaded with up to 2,700 containers - 11,000 metric tons of cargo.

All over the Pacific, thousands of other ships are sailing heavily loaded with everything from apples to toys. As the world's economy grows, the shipping industry is racing to keep up with demand, especially in Asia, where most economies rely on exports. Cargo is beginning to back up because of a shortage of containers and ships - some Japanese exporters wait three months to get a container on a ship.

The number of containers moving from the United States to Asia during the first quarter rose nine percent compared with a year ago. Sam Saeki, general manager of Kawasaki Kisen's container ships group, says much of that was fueled by China, where a booming economy is not only pumping out exports, but also pulling in imports. "They are importing a lot of the raw materials for energy such as crude oil, coals. They used to be exporting or they were supposed to have enough resources themselves," says Mr. Saeki. "This is giving a very much dynamic change to world shipping."

Posted by Timothy Fredel at May 27, 2004 09:34 PM | TrackBack
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