Global Shipping Benchmarking Analysis 2014

Clear weather on the horizon?

We are now in the sixth year of our annual Global Shipping Benchmarking Analysis, in which we provide an overview of the factors that impacted the shipping industry in the previous year and analyse how these have been reported by a large number of shipping companies from around the world.

The year 2013 was characterised by a growing optimism. Global economic activity and world trade picked up in the second half of the year. Demand in advanced economies expanded while in emerging market economies the export activity was the main driver behind the reported improvement in the relevant measures. In the shipping sector, freight rates in several segments turned to positive levels and both vessel values and cash flows showed some signs of recovery.