Remember last time we talked...
...about what happened in the maritime shipping industry from 1950 to 2002. Now what was particularly important during this period of time was the rise of standardization by means of containerization.
Constant change was so prevalent...
...that Dr. Martin Stopford, Managing Director of Clarkson Research, divided the period up into 5 distinct periods. In an October 2002 forum, he explained that the period since 1950 can best be understood by the following phases, namely Cash (1950-1956), Charterback (1956-1970), Bubble (1970-1979), Distress (1979-1988), Convalescence (1988-2002)
Now the “Cash” period followed after the two major world wars
The second of which ended at around 1945. The key aspects of this period were as follows:
- Borrowing money from banks was seen as a weakness.
- Gearing rates (the percentage of capital from debt) was usually under twenty percent.
- Retained earnings were invested in own fleets.
