Overall confidence levels in the shipping industry have shown a further rise over the past three months, reaching their highest level since May 2008. According to the latest Shipping Confidence survey by Moore Stephens, owners, managers, charterers and brokers all feel more confident about the shipping markets in which they operate, and more optimistic about making a major investment over the coming year. The number of respondents expecting finance costs to rise over the next twelve months, having peaked at their highest levels for fifteen months in the previous survey, was down across all categories of respondent. Charterers, meanwhile, were alone in thinking that rates in the tanker and dry bulk trades were likely to fall over the next twelve months.
Moore Stephens shipping partner, Richard Greiner, says, “It is encouraging to note that, despite continuing general economic uncertainty worldwide, and irrespective of the further recent instability generated by the crisis in the Greek economy, confidence in shipping has now risen for the third consecutive quarter. There is an undeniable mood of renewed optimism in the industry. It is tempered by an underlying level of caution, but that is no bad thing. Those who can remember bad markets are less likely to allow themselves to be caught up in further ones.
Most people are expecting rates to go up in the tanker, dry cargo and container ship sectors. There are signs that banks might be willing to lend once more to shipping businesses that have done their homework and those which may have spotted new, viable opportunities in a shipping market which has changed significantly during the past two years. All this is good news for shipping. But with operating costs on a continual upward curve, companies – and particularly those who are looking to expand - would be well-advised to proceed with care.”
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The Moore Stephens Shipping Confidence Survey includes responses from key players in the international shipping industry to a targeted, web-based survey by the Moore Stephens Shipping Industry Group. Responses were received from owners, charterers, brokers, advisers, managers and others in the UK, Rest of Europe, USA, Canada, Russia, China, India, Rest of Asia, Latin America, Africa and Australasia.