Surviving the Present Shipping Cycle: A Shipbroker’s Perspective

By Basil Karatzas, Compass Maritime Services

Who ever would have thought that shipping in 2008 would have been replete with pyrotechnics? While the fireworks at the Beijing Olympics in late August were definitely epoch defining, they were also eerily symbolic for the spectacular growth of shipping in recent memory. The minute the Olympic flame was extinguished, it seems the breath of the markets has gone with it. The freight indices, the broader Baltic Dry Index (BDI) and the narrower Baltic Capesize Index (BCI), both hit all time highs in late May and June 2008, but by early December 2008 both indices recorded all time lows, both indices down more than 90% from the peak.

While a slow down in shipping was widely expected by virtue of the fact

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