Record rates are due not just to China, but also to a convergence of shipping supply and demand factors not seen since the 1960s, so says Clarkson guru Martin Stopford.

Martin Stopford
Addressing delegates at Shipping China 2005 in Shanghai, Stopford said that these were the “two exceptional factors” driving shipping’s current boom.

“The first [factor] derives from a very radical change in the market fundamentals of the shipping business,” he told the audience.

“The