Worry in freight markets over Chinese slowdownPost by David Elliott on 12th July 2012 in Industry news, Shipping Recent news that the growth in exports from China to the eurozone countries has petered out is alarming shippers for whom serving this market is a large part of their business. In the first half of this year, the value of goods exported from China to Europe fell by 0.8 per cent. As a result, America is now a bigger market for Chinese goods than the whole of the European Union. The level of imports into China from Europe are still rising, seeing a 6.3 per cent growth between January and June. But this is half the level of growth that was being achieved a year ago. Weaker demand for consumer goods in China as the country experiences a period of economic turbulence is now worrying global shippers, who fear that the economy's efforts to replace export growth with domestic demand as a driver for economic prosperity are having little success. Thomas Cullen of Transportintelligence.com noted: "The consequences of this trend for global logistics markets may not be good. Volumes on the Europe-China [trade routes] look especially vulnerable in both directions. "In the sea freight market, static volumes will not absorb capacity, however the apparent rise in rates will also hit forwarders' margins."
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