Continental Banking Review

by Alan Ginsberg

We will cut right to the chase: discussions held late last year with ship finance bankers based in France, Germany and the Netherlands have yielded a majority opinion that there will be no banking crisis with respect to the ongoing difficulties in both the dry bulk and the containership markets.

Containership Overview
Bankers, second only in their historical optimism to shipowners, acknowledge that there is a significant overtonnaging situation, while in classic fashion steadfastly believing that the industry will “grow out of it.” We are not as optimistic that demand will continue to grow unabated for a seeming indefinite period of time. Further, with respect to scrapping, as containership vessels are subject to different stresses than bulk carriers and putting aside the issues of speed and consumption, thirty-year useful lives are quite possible. Nevertheless, bankers we visited with believe that their clients have sufficient liquidity to weather the current storm and they remain committed to assist those who do require restructuring.

This is only an excerpt of Continental Banking Review

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