Shipping lines 'losing money' as bunker costs surge

The tremendous rise in bunker costs cause shipping lines to loose money on particular routes.

Ronald Widdows, chief executive of the global container shipping business APL Ltd and chairman of the Transpacific Stabilization Agreement (TSA) said a large part of the industry was operating in the red, even though 2007 had been seen as a good year for shipping. Last week a new system of 'floating surcharges' and upcoming rate increase in a bid to cover bunker costs was announced by TSA soon after Widdows comment, that said TSA members wanted a system that better reflected bunker fuel price fluctuations and that bunker costs are already forcing carriers to cut capacity on trade lanes to the US.

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