A senior executive at Maersk Line said Monday the carrier expects the strong shipping growth early this year to slow down in the second half of the year because volume has outpaced gains in retail sales. … “Rate increases and rate levels remain at a fragile level,” he said. “We see rate levels being at about a break-even level. But no one is in this business to operate at something less than profitable level.”
Maersk, the world’s largest containership operator, lost $2.088 billion last year, partly the result of what the carrier said was a 28 percent decline in average rates in 2009 from the year before.