Singapore Shipping Association: Export recovery years away

ASIAN container exports to the west may take five years to regain from last year's record high losses, said Singapore Shipping Association president SS Teo, according to Reuters.

Mr Teo, also managing director of Pacific International Lines (PIL) and a Singapore MP, said full recovery in the container shipping industry would be driven by China's growing demand for semi-finished products and raw materials from other Asian countries.

Container freight rates for intra-Asia route are expected to increase nine per cent to US$920 per TEU in 2011 from 2009, said shipping analysts with DnB NOR Markets, a unit of Norway's biggest bank, suggesting that rates between Asia and the west will rise only three per cent.

Said Mr Teo: "I don't think we can say the Asian market will decouple from the west, but we will continue to see the Asian economy become more resilient."
(Source:www.schednet.com)