Port projects put on hold in storm

The global economy may be showing tentative signs of recovery but international trade is still suffering from the aftershocks of last year’s credit quakes.

AP Moller-Maersk, the world’s largest container shipping line, is on course for the first full-year loss of its 105-year history, and warned in August that the industry remained in a “crisis of historic dimensions”.

The International Monetary Fund said in May the world trade in goods and services would contract 11 per cent in 2009 and remain flat next year. The Baltic Dry index, an important measure of shipping costs for raw materials, recovered from last autumn’s lows, but started to slip again in May due to still-depressed demand for shipping.