Freight Rates
Despite one of the worst years for container traffic, shipping lines are threatening to raise freight rates next year on the trans-Pacific route. Ronald Widdows, chief executive and group president of the NOL Group, the Singapore-based parent of shipping line APL, said at a transportation conference that companies have to up rates or go out of business. To tackle an oversupply problem, shipping lines are taking vessels off the routes and mothballing them. Many shipping lines don’t expect a capacity squeeze until 2013.
