Smiles may be seen more often these days on the faces of persons in the shipping industry amid predictions that by the fourth quarter of 2010, there will be a definite upsurge in business.
However, everyone agrees 2010 will not bring ever see the halcyon days of 2007 and 2008.
The economy is not ready to head that way anytime soon – maybe not until 2012 or later. Everyone does agree, however, that key decisions made in the Capitol and White House in the coming weeks will be the final determining factor for success we can count on in 2010.
Before consumer purchases will shoot up and fill containers from overseas, Americans must have jobs paying as well as those they lost in 2008 and 2009. Does that mean that better use of the stimulus funds must be applied? I would say yes.
Will the pressure on energy under the proposed cap-and-trade bill hurt or benefit the business community? Will it become law? The administration and Democratic leaders on Capitol Hill say it will.
These and other factors not only will determine the course the economy will take, but also the direction of the maritime world. A “greener” waterfront now being required by the Environmental Protection Agency – whose demands upon the seaports are broadening – also will help determine all plans in port areas in 2010 and on into the future.
With that outline of potential policy, we can predict that more windmills and solar panels will be imported to carry out the president’s drive for alternative energy. Maybe at some point as the demand for windmills and solar panels continue to mount, plants will be opened somewhere in the United States to produce these here.
Coal exports are on the rise particularly since China now is buying coal from the U.S. China’s eagerness to gobble up any and all natural resources throughout the globe is enabled because she has the finances to do so. With that never-ending search and the dollars, China has learned that the U.S. coal is abundant and available.