The world’s biggest container shipping line by market share has called the bottom of the global trade cycle, forecasting the world will come out of the funk induced by the eurozone crisis in the coming two years.
The recession in many worldwide economies that followed the 2008 crisis caused trade to collapse around the world.
The continuing recession in Europe and slowdown in China and other big developing economies this year have led the World Trade Organisation and others to downgrade expectations for global trade this year and next. The WTO expects global trade to grow 2.5 per cent this year. Maersk Line said yesterday it believed the downturn in trade had bottomed out and forecast that demand for global containers would grow by 4-6 per cent in 2014 and 2015, up from forecasts of 2-3 per cent for this year.