Shippers slam state aid grants
Shipper lobby group The Shippers’ Voice has hit out at shipping lines being granted state aid, claiming it sends out the wrong message to the industry.
MD of The Shippers’ Voice Andrew Trail said that shipping lines were facing problems because vessel owners had purchased too many ships in the past.
He said: “It wasn’t that long ago that such people were making obscene amounts of money! It was the prospect of huge returns on investment that fed the frenzy of new ship orders, not a careful consideration of what the market needed."
He added giving them state aid was the equivalent of saying: “Don’t worry about making any bad or untimely investment decisions, because the state is here to bail you out so that you can make more bad decisions in the future.
“I think it is time to draw a line in the sand and learn the lessons of the past extraordinary year and the business decisions of recent years which leading up to it.”
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