Global collapse of shipping and ship building

[ThePythonicCow]

Here is another sign of the times - a collapsing world economy:

Over the last year, the quantity, whether in Dollars or tonnage, of ship building has collapsed over 90%. For example Korean ship building is down 94% to 96%, year over year. Some major Chinese ship builders have gone bankrupt.
See this article for details: Shipbuilding Industry Collapses, Hits China and South Korea -- Global overcapacity, plunging demand, and a price war (Wolf Street; May 20, 2016) (http://wolfstreet.com/2016/05/20/shipbuilding-industry-collapses-in-china-and-south-korea/).

[ThePythonicCow]

In related news, from Zerohedge: Something Stunning Is Taking Place Off The Coast Of Singapore (http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-05-20/something-stunning-taking-place-coast-singapore), many of the ships that have been built are sitting idle at sea, unused.

This article shows this map of idle ships in the Straits of Malacca, off Singapore, one of the world's most important shipping lanes. Oil from the Middle East to China travels through here.

http://www.zerohedge.com/sites/default/files/images/user5/imageroot/2016/05/13/singapore%20ships_0.jpg
The red dots are the idle ships, hardly moving at all.

[avid]

The Baltic Dry Index has been indicative of collapse for years. This graphic, and many similar for years where tankers were 'hanging out' in the Gulf of Mexico et al, are proof. However, now some of the main 'suppliers' are in jeopardy due to 'wildfires', business may pick up - eventually... hmmmmm.....

[avid]

off topic - but the largest cruise ship is causing pollution problems http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/may/21/the-worlds-largest-cruise-ship-and-its-supersized-pollution-problem

Back to topic - how can ship-building companies sustain this? Cruising and not-bruising cargo? Defies logic.

[Matt P]

We shouldn't want or expect this destructive world economy to maintain constant growth year after year, should we? I find this to be wonderful news, as I do every time I hear the beast isn't devouring so much.

Matt

[Ewan]

Fascinating Paul. My cousin was a ships Captain for close to 30 years, most latterly with Maersk and only a recent heart problem (triple bypass) has kept him out of the water this last 12 months.

I agree with mpennery that, paraphrasing, its good news and can't come quick enough. It was probably around 15 years ago I worked out that the entire concept of Capitalism was insane. Whenever I have metioned that to others though, they smile and nod in the fashion you would expect from someone intent on sidling away from you but keeping in your good books before you become a full-blown homocidal maniac. The sooner it collapses the more humanity can survive, if it progresses to its logical conclusion it is the end of everything. Literally. (That doesn't sound hyperbolic does it?)

[Inversion]

Huge parking lot of ships off the coast of Singapore.

http://undergroundworldnews.com/2016/05/21/something-stunning-is-taking-place-off-the-coast-of-singapore/


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=elQcfcZs-Hg

[Carmody]

It is the peak before the fall and then bounce..due to the build into overcapacity.

It was inevitable, and has accompanied every cycle of this nature. In this case it is the global shipbuilding and global shipping arena.

Earlier it was railway companies building too much rail. Or the gold rush towns. And so on.