AT THE blustery Port of Tilbury, on the eastern outskirts of London, the word in the air is diversification. Less space is being given over to conventional container shipping. Instead, the port’s owners are investing in new projects. A large metal skeleton will soon become a refrigerated storage unit, to hold perishables on their way to Britain’s supermarkets. According to Tilbury’s chief operating officer, Perry Glading, the country’s container ports have a problem with overcapacity. Tilbury’s response is to use the port’s 1,000-acre site as flexibly as possible.
World trade data bear out Mr Glading’s caution. In South Korea, a bellwether for the global economy, exports of goods fell by almost 15% year on year in August in dollar terms. In China, the most important link in global supply chains, exports were down by over 5%. British and American exports have also been slipping. In the first six months of the year global merchandise trade shrank by more than 13% year on year. From the mid-1980s until the middle of the last decade, annual trade growth stood at 7%.
The recent falls can be partly explained by changes in prices. The...Continue reading
from Economics http://ift.tt/1OykPwp
via IFTTT
No comments:
Post a Comment