SUBIC BAY, Philippines (Reuters) - It's 11 a.m. on a weekday but huge, bulky cargo ships scattered in this Philippine port are quiet and nearly deserted, save for a handful of workers repainting chipped handrails on some vessels.
About 22 ships -- mostly empty cargo vessels -- have anchored in this former U.S. naval base northwest of Manila, some as long as three months running. It's cheaper than most other ports in the region to park a ship and most crews are dominated by Filipinos so it's a popular choice.
Before August, when the global economic crisis started to stymie trade, cargo ships rarely stayed in Subic for more than a week. At any one time there were no more than 10 ships at the port.
"We don't usually get ships docked for a prolonged period," said Armand Arreza, administrator at the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority. "We would usually get a few ships which would be on lay up, but never to the extent that we have about 22 ships and for a prolonged period of time."
Lay ups refer to the temporary shutdown of cargo ships during periods of surplus and depressed freight rates.
Since September, Subic Bay management has been swamped with e-mails and calls from owners seeking to dock their cargo ships at the port to cut costs following the collapse in shipping charges as global trade fell to multi-year lows.
About 12 other ships have left Subic Bay since the end of 2008 to pick up cargo around Asia, waiting two weeks to three months to get a client. But for the remaining 22 ships, the wait continues.
"There is no cargo," said the captain of a European-owned container vessel docked at the bay since December who asked not to be named as he was not authorized to talk to the media.
"This ship is a feeder vessel. And it depends mostly on mother vessels. Since there are no mother ships bringing cargo from US and Europe, smaller container vessels like this are affected," said the 54-year old Filipino captain.
SHIPPING RATES FALL
Average shipping rates slumped beginning August 2008 and hit a six-year low of $15,000 per day in November. That represented a 67 percent to 70 percent drop from highs of $45,000-$50,000 per day in June 2008, based on an internal publication of a European container ship firm in January.
Freight rates for dry bulk ships have plummeted from the highs hit during the commodities bull run last year.
Rates for capesize vessels -- the largest that can ferry iron ore, coal and grains -- on the key route between Brazil and China have fallen to $21 a tonne, down from above $100 a tonne in June last year, according to Reuters data.
The International Monetary Fund, predicting the world economy will stagnate this year overall with the deepening global financial crisis, forecasts world export volumes will contract 2.8 percent.
In Asia, most export-driven countries like Japan, Korea and Taiwan have suffered steep double-digit declines in shipments, paralyzing their economies and resulting in region-wide ship lay ups. Continued...
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