A River for Unused Ships

An interesting piece on the BBC website this morning examining how the fall in global trade has forced many ship owners to take their ships off the sea an mothball them at ports.

The Fal Estuary in Cornwall has been filled up with giant container ships waiting for global trade to pick up. The Fal estuary is often seen as one of the barometers of world trade. “When the Fal is empty, trade is buoyant. When it is full, like now, things are tough”.

Many of the ships are the ones used for carrying new cars across the globe, the car industry has been especially hard hit by the global slowdown. Likewise demand for white goods from China has fallen and the estuary also has a fine collection of container ships.

The reason that the Fal estuary is used is because it is amongst the deepest anywhere in the world. It is also well protected from the elelemnts. The primary reason though is that it is cheaper for shipping owners to keep their vessels here with a skeleton crew rather than out and sea waiting for orders that are simply not arriving.

The local Cornish economy though is benefiting. The harbour authority charges thousands of pounds a month for every vessel laid up. Local mariners have also benefited and are making extra money by charging a fee to check engines, ferry crew and deliver groceries.

An interesting case of global and regional economics combined.

There is also a video clip to go with the article.