Snowman Did SOMETHING Right

Getting rid of SeaLand:

Moller-Maersk is the Danish concern Sea/Land was unloaded upon. The portion of the Maersk fleet that represented SeaLand is still considered part of the US Merchant Marine with these vessels having American officers in command. The April 2009 piracy incident off Somalia involved one of such vessels - the Maersk Alabama and Capt. Richard Phillips:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142 ... 14988.html

Brief passage:

• The world's biggest freight shipping line, A.P. Moller Maersk AS, reported its first full-year loss since its founding in 1904 amid a collapse in global trade.
  
  The company swung to a 2009 loss of $1.31 billion, after a $3.33 billion profit the previous year. "The loss is significant," said Chief Executive Nils S. Andersen. "But 2009 was an extraordinary year with historically low rates and low demand."
  
  The outlook for 2010 is only a bit better. Maersk said it expected to turn "a modest profit." Analysts have forecast a profit for 2010 of more than $1 billion...........The company's future financial health hinges on its container-shipping business, which lost $2.1 billion in 2009 after making $583 million the year before. Like other carriers, Maersk Line invested heavily in new ships during the boom years of the 2000s. Now it has a surplus of ships, contributing to a global oversupply at a time when trade is undergoing its worst slump since World War II.
  
  Maersk Line and other carriers have reacted by laying up ships, reducing staff and cutting costs in all kinds of ways, including avoiding the Suez Canal and steaming slower at sea. At Maersk, "We managed to limit the loss by saving around $2 billion, and we will continue to strengthen our competitiveness even further," said Mr. Andersen

Oh, and lest anyone start gloating about the maritime industry's woes, just remember how interdependent the railroad industry finds themselves with such:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142 ... 00018.html

Brief passage:

• Minnesota farmer Wayne Knewtson has 2,000 acres of soybeans, and soy-milk makers in Vietnam eager to buy his crop.
  
  The only problem: delays of three and four weeks in shipping them. His customers "are not happy," Mr. Knewtson says. And because he doesn't get paid until the beans arrive in Vietnam, he has had to take out a loan to cover expenses on his farm.
  
  The U.S. finally is enjoying some strength in exports, thanks to economic recovery in Asia and a generally weak dollar. But just as U.S. goods find demand abroad, there's a problem getting them there.
  
  .It's the opposite of what one might expect. Carriers have a surplus of ships. And since the U.S. still imports more than it exports, freighters arrive in America looking for export cargo to take back, so they don't have to go home empty.
  
  Yet American producers of everything from hazelnuts to cardboard are complaining they can't get their goods shipped in timely fashion. Eighty rail cars filled with dried peas sat for weeks on train tracks outside Seattle, waiting for a ship to India. Wheat for Asia is stuck in a warehouse in North Dakota.