
At its half-year results in August Clarkson (CKN) was confident that the challenging conditions in the shipping sector, brought on by an imbalance of supply and demand since the financial crisis, could soon abate. The Baltic Dry index, which determines how much it costs to move raw materials by sea, saw a 100 per cent year-on-year improvement. Fewer ships are being built, which has helped to ease capacity concerns, while more shipping containers are expected to hit the seas by the end of the year.