Annual Review and Outlook 2010

The past 12 months have showed us a diversified picture of the world economy and our market. It’s probably the first time in economical history that we have seen emerging markets stabilizing the world economy.

As expected, the year 2009 was driven by insecurity and market caution. As consequence we had a significant decrease of freight rates and cargo movements in the first 9 months stabilizing on a low level in the last quarter.

For 2010 we do not expect a significant change even though we see a light in the dark. Nearly 80% of the projects greater than 1 billion USD investments – which have been stopped due to frozen credits – have been released again. In addition we see a high potential in the energy sector. Governmental programs supporting Green Energy are launched all over the world. Oil and Gas exploration are being readopted.

As before, we expect the market to continue to be driven by the same players as we have seen in the past: South America, India and China. These three still have immense potential and are still rapidly developing, driven by a high rate of public and infrastructure investment. It is unlikely that they will reduce their development and infrastructure investments, and we do not expect them to adopt protectionist trade policies.

But all these positive indicators are not changing the fact that we have to face a tough year. The existing tonnage is more than capable to cover the present and medium term market volumes.