The world's largest container shipper, Maersk Line, has said it is close to breaking even as freight rates increase, and has predicted demand will continue to rise this year, Bloomberg reported.
"We still feel there's a good balance between supply and demand but we also know that part of it is because of inventory replenishment," Maersk Line CEO Eivind Kolding said during an interview in St Petersburg.
Mr Kolding said container demand will rise about 5 per cent in 2010, after the shipping market contracted in 2009 for the first time since the industry became globalised in the 1970s.
The Danish company's container arm lost a record US$2.09bn last year.
"Container rates have increased quite a lot since December and they are now approaching the level where we're about to break even," said Mr Kolding.
Restocking has helped increase demand by around 10-20 per cent this year, according to Mr Kolding, but Western European consumption hasn't picked up.
