Continuing consolidation in the containerisation sector risks exposing the industry to the kind of extinction dinosaurs once faced, according to South Korea’s oceans minister Yoo Ki-june.
Yoo told the Danish Maritime Forum in Copenhagen on Wednesday that shipping is at “a critical juncture”. He says shipping has gone through structural changes and is now seen as “risky”, adding that the market is concentrated on influential shipping companies to the extent that without corrective measures in the short term, small- and medium-sized shipping lines will be driven out of business.
Yoo also urged the clean fuels industry to come up with “equitable prices” to help shipping transition to a more environmentally sound footing. When pressed on the sidelines of the forum about his consolidation concerns, the minister told IHS Maritime he still believed that “small- and medium-sized carriers can co-exist with the big ones”.
This post was sourced from IHS Maritime 360: View the original article here.