Expect to see a resurgence of the importance conferences play in our industry in 2010. The way our industry responds to indiscriminate cooperation will be the key to endurance through a necessity for all to work together. Cooperation will be the only way back to prosperity. There needs to be a unified effort across all segments of the market to restore profitable rates as the path to survival.
Shippers associations and intermediaries, which must help support a system of price increases, will be invaluable in the regeneration of the supply chain. Working together within segments of our industry will be the only bloodless way to get out of this hole dug by forces beyond our control. Rebuilding employment opportunities and investment in infrastructure will only happen when we (as an industry) restore the cash flow needed to sustain that growth.
Conferences recently considered to be extinct are very much in demand as a preferred vehicle. The ripple effect of 2008’s global financial crisis has swelled into a tidal wave for the international shipping industry. We already see the resulting cost cuts on many good lives swept up in this crisis. It will not end there, and good companies may cease to exist for no other reason than bad timing. The year(s) ahead will tell the levy that will come to fruition unless we all can pull it together. The decision by the world’s largest carrier to rejoin the Transpacific Stabilization Agreement is an encouraging sign the work has already started.