In an interview with Bloomberg TV in the US, Maersk Line North Asia chief executive officer Tim Smith has expressed his optimism over the state of the global shipping industry.
'We've been on a real rollercoaster,' he explained, adding he was 'hopeful that the good strong shipments we've seen in December will continue a little bit into the new year.'
In the interview, he told Bloomberg that 2012 had proved to be a volatile year, starting poorly with low demand and freight rates, but that things had picked up later in the year, particularly in the Asia-Europe trade.
The biggest challenge moving forward was overcapacity, Smith noted: 'In these volatile markets we have seen a lot more capacity coming into the market the last couple of years than is needed by the lower levels of demand.'
Last year overcapacity was managed by taking out ships, scrapping them, slowing ships down or idling them for shorter or longer periods, he said.
'We managed to balance supply and demand,' noted Smith, 'and that is the game we need to play again in 2013.'
'2012 was a bit of a roller-coaster for us and for our customers,' said Smith. 'What we would like to do is to get into a more sustainable basis in 2013. We should never be too confident in these challenging times, but it’s certainly looking more optimistic than it has been for a little while.'
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