There once was a time, not that long ago, when the global container traffic increased every year by double-digit percentages, and a time when shipowners could optimistically keep ordering more vessels and larger vessels because the economic growth alone was enough to secure business. Then, a few years ago, the market growth fell to just five percent on average. And over the course of 2015, the decline really took hold of the industry: "4-5 percent" became "3-4 percent". And in October of last year this became "1-3 percent". Now it looks as though the demand for container transport in 2015 will land as close to zero as one can possibly come, thus constituting a record low after 30 years of growth which has shaped an entire industry.

"We're expecting a demand for the whole market of between 1 and 3 percent, and it will probably be in the lower end. On Asia-Europe alone, the first 11 months of 2015 have brought a decline of 4 percent. We have never experienced such a negative development, except during the violent fluctuations of the financial crisis in 2009," says Maersk Line's Chief Strategy & Transformation Officer, Jakob Stausholm, in an interview with ShippingWatch.