Danish giant Maersk chief operating officer Morten Engelstoft said supply and demand will remain fragile with demand dropping in the second half.
The group's chief commercial officer Richard Mitchell, of APM Terminals, said the industry must get used to a "new normal" and that what growth there is, would emanate from emerging markets like Africa.
Demand is slowing with retail sales in February just more than one per cent up, driven by restocking rather than consumer sales, Mr Engelstoft told a Containersation International Shipping Conference in London.
With rate increases and rate levels at a "fragile level" Mr Engelstoft predicted breaking even, but little more.
Yet the National Retail Federation's Port Tracker was more upbeat with its author Ben Hackett of Hackett Associates less gloomy with a forecast of 11 to 12 per cent growth in transpacific imports with caution keeping stock inventories low.
"Consumers are coming back, as we see in the March numbers on retail sales that were just released. I think the second half of 2010 will be relatively strong," he said.
APM Terminals chief commercial officer Mr Mitchell told the conference that the container industry was in a "new normal" period, characterised by "significant free handling capacity in the large gateways" and "slower rates of annual growth as a consequence of trade shifting away from headhaul east-west trades".
Mr Mitchell said that the industry should look to growth rates of five to six per cent a year increase of the nine to 10 per cent levels expected in the past.
"We all have to get used to the new normal which also means greater carrier uncertainty, more complex arrangements between lines, increased pressure on terminal tariffs and a continual dance between supply and demand in many terminals," he said.
Mr Mitchell looked to Africa for growth, said that APM T was well positioned on west African coast, the Mideast and south Asia.
"Volumes at ports in the Middle East and Africa hardly fell [one to three per cent] last year. On this basis, the Middle East and Africa will recover in 2010-2011, but North America and western Europe will take much longer as the collapse there was so big." he said.
The group's chief commercial officer Richard Mitchell, of APM Terminals, said the industry must get used to a "new normal" and that what growth there is, would emanate from emerging markets like Africa.
Demand is slowing with retail sales in February just more than one per cent up, driven by restocking rather than consumer sales, Mr Engelstoft told a Containersation International Shipping Conference in London.
With rate increases and rate levels at a "fragile level" Mr Engelstoft predicted breaking even, but little more.
Yet the National Retail Federation's Port Tracker was more upbeat with its author Ben Hackett of Hackett Associates less gloomy with a forecast of 11 to 12 per cent growth in transpacific imports with caution keeping stock inventories low.
"Consumers are coming back, as we see in the March numbers on retail sales that were just released. I think the second half of 2010 will be relatively strong," he said.
APM Terminals chief commercial officer Mr Mitchell told the conference that the container industry was in a "new normal" period, characterised by "significant free handling capacity in the large gateways" and "slower rates of annual growth as a consequence of trade shifting away from headhaul east-west trades".
Mr Mitchell said that the industry should look to growth rates of five to six per cent a year increase of the nine to 10 per cent levels expected in the past.
"We all have to get used to the new normal which also means greater carrier uncertainty, more complex arrangements between lines, increased pressure on terminal tariffs and a continual dance between supply and demand in many terminals," he said.
Mr Mitchell looked to Africa for growth, said that APM T was well positioned on west African coast, the Mideast and south Asia.
"Volumes at ports in the Middle East and Africa hardly fell [one to three per cent] last year. On this basis, the Middle East and Africa will recover in 2010-2011, but North America and western Europe will take much longer as the collapse there was so big." he said.