As expected the ocean container industry just about scraped over the break-even line in 2012, albeit only because of the results of a handful of leading lights. There is every chance that lines will make decent money in 2013, but only if they refrain from old habits and stick to pricing and capacity discipline.
The world container ship capacity reached 16.335 million 20-foot-equivalent units on Jan. 1, 2013, an increase of 6 percent from a year ago, according to industry analyst Alphaliner.