The shipping companies are among the big winners of the Corona crisis.

Because the supply chains broke in many places and there was a new demand for goods - for masks as well as for digital equipment - transport capacities became scarce and shipping companies were able to increase their freight prices many times over.

Above all, the large shipping lines such as Hapag-Lloyd in Hamburg earned many billions from this alone without increasing their transport volume.

Susanne Preuss

Business correspondent in Hamburg.

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No wonder, then, that the industry responded positively when the consulting firm PwC Germany surveyed the decision-makers in German ocean-going shipping companies at the end of May/beginning of June.

“The boom has now reached even the smallest shipowners.

In 93 percent of the German ocean-going shipping companies, all ships are fully utilized,” is one result of the survey.

The industry is in a completely different state than it was before the pandemic.

“Today, the problem is no longer overcapacity with a lack of demand, but rather a lack of transport capacity with a sharp rise in demand,” comments Burkhard Sommer from PwC’s Maritime Competence Center.

Two-thirds of shipowners assume that global cargo volumes will increase over the next five years.

However, shipowners' confidence is no longer as high as it was at the time of the survey.

Two weeks ago, Hapag-Lloyd boss Rolf Habben Jansen reported record results for the first three quarters, but said that the market environment had clouded over.

The spot rates, i.e. the price for the short-term booking of containers, are declining.

Soren Skou, CEO of the larger competitor Maersk, became even clearer a few days later.

During a visit to the Club of Hamburg business journalists, when asked how quickly freight rates were falling, he said: “Super fast.

Faster than I would like.”

The consulting firm Drewrys reported a price of just under $2,700 per container for the Shanghai-Rotterdam route on November 17, while almost $14,000 had to be paid on this route until spring 2022.

Many shipowners have used the high profits from the high freight rates to order new ships.

The next problem could already be programmed with this.

69 percent of the shipowners participating in the PwC study fear that the many new orders for container ships will lead to overcapacities in a few years.

Notwithstanding, the shipping companies have a completely different concern.

According to the PwC survey, the shortage of skilled workers is the most serious problem for every second shipping company.