Year End 2012

2012 is basically over for the shipping industry. Anything people are still shipping will be air freight or last minute deliveries as we come to a close. So was this a good year for shipping or a bad year for shipping? Some might say it was a bad year for container shipping considering all of the natural disasters throughout the year and that we haven’t been able to climb out of the recession. Even container shipping who was looking promising for awhile has not met all of the goals that were set for the year. There have been too many problems including strikes and possible strikes that it is hard for them to see any progress as the year ends. Companies have been forced to merge and forced to focus on other divisions of their companies to stay in the black. Plus we are finishing the year with a blizzard and another possibility of an ILA strike.

Others may think of this as a particularly good year by not just looking at the sales numbers. Considering what types of international events have happened from a cruise ship toppling to various political protests and catastrophic weather events, the recession has been moved to the back burner in so many ways. Most organizations are certainly still working to stay in business and we are in no way out of the recession, but it seems we are accepting it all despite what we were up against this year. Thankfully it is only a matter of time until we are all back on track. We are all hoping that 2013 will be the come-back year for all of us in the shipping industry.