Maersk Line says container sector to stay depressed

Reuters: Conditions in the overall ship container industry will remain depressed in the coming months due to a glut of ships on order, the chief executive of Maersk Line, the world’s biggest container shipping company, said last week.

Prospects for a recovery in the global container shipping industry could be derailed if global economic turmoil spreads and consumer demand in Europe and the United States slides.

“Overall the industry is suffering and will probably do so for some months,” Maersk Line CEO Eivind Kolding told Reuters on Monday.

“Definitely it is going to be difficult to make good money in this environment,” he said on the sidelines of a company presentation in London.  Maersk Line is a unit of Danish shipping and oil group A.P. Moller-Maersk.