Singapore (Platts)--27Oct2010/747 am EDT/1147 GMT

      
Freight markets across the various shipping segments are expected
to stay depressed next year, but the increasing economic clout of the BIRI
countries would come to the aid of the shipping industry, SK Shipping chief
executive officer Kyuho Whang said Wednesday at a bunker conference.

     The BIRI countries, which refer to Brazil, India, Russia and Indonesia,
will boast of economies worth more than $9 trillion each and would
significantly add to the ton-mile growth in the tanker, bulker and other
segments of shipping, Whang said at the Singapore International Bunkering
Conference 2010.

     "BIRI [countries] have the potential to grow as much as China," Whang
said.     

     China's economic growth, however, has had a great influence on global
commodity trading thus bringing about the "China effect" in the shipping
industry, he added.

     Explaining the impact of BIRI countries on the freight market, he cited
the example of India becoming a big coal importer, with volumes expected to
cross 100 million mt mark this year as well as in the next, as Latin American
countries become a sizable resource provider.

     Dwelling on the challenges going forward for the shipping industry, the
South Korea shipping boss said the uncertainty of a double-dip recession was
still there but there could be some help with the emerging economies
holding up.

     The massive oversupply as a result of newbuilding orders is also a cause
for worry. "Opportunistic investors have ordered a huge number of ships. This
is a disaster for shipowners," Whang said. 

     Another speaker, DNV president Tor Svenson, too, expressed his concerns
over the supply situation created by the newbuilding orders.

     He said 1,300 new ships had been ordered this year even as the global
shipping fleet was growing annually at 7% for the past few years, while there
was a time when the annual growth was just 2% for over 20 years.

--Pradeep Rajan, pradeep_rajan@platts.com

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