Container ship lines have yet to prove they can manage vessel capacity well enough to ensure long-term profitability, the chief executive of Japan’s NYK Line said. In a speech marking NYK’s 125th anniversary, CEO Yasumi Kudo said container shipping “has pulled off an unexpectedly swift recovery,” but “it would be a mistake to claim that the container ship business has become a fully sustainable business model.”
“Whether or not the container ship business can be transformed into a sustainable business model will depend on container ship operators voluntarily choosing to lay up ships according to shipping capacity, during the next slack season,” he said. “The problem … is that even if all operators resort to ship lay up during the next slack season, it may not be truly possible to expect such a measure on a permanent basis.”