A slow recovery in global trade and tight finance could set the stage for a wave of consolidation in the trillion-dollar shipping industry, as it gears up for a second straight year of turmoil in 2010. Hundreds of empty container ships, bulk carriers and others — the so-called “ghost ships” — have been idled in deep-sea ports of Asia and Europe this year, following a slump in freight as the global financial crisis caused world trade to plunge. … While the broader outlook remains bleak, dry bulk shippers that focus on commodities have seen some signs of bottoming out in freight rates and even nascent price hikes as countries like China spend billions of dollars on infrastructure under its stimulus plans.
