MSC ship in Brasil
Customers of shipping lines created container shipping’s deepest crisis and contributed to persistent and damaging price instability in the sector, the head of the industry’s second-biggest operator has said. Gianluigi Aponte, chief executive of Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC), told the Financial Times that every main line would survive the crisis, in which earnings per container have slumped well below operating costs. But shippers – shipping lines’ customers – had abused industry overcapacity to stir up price competition, he said. “Shippers are not that deep,” Mr Aponte said. “They worry always who will ship for $50 less. The shippers are concerned solely by the price.”