Ellen MacArthur on ships, speed and sustainability

What we're talking about here has little to do with sporting achievements or round-the-world racing, though. It is in fact one of the most striking indicators of the economy literally slowing down; as it turns out, the average speed of the container ship fleets criss-crossing the world's oceans have dropped by roughly 30 per cent in 10 years.

Shipping is at the heart of today's economy, and it is estimated that cargo ships transport 75 per cent of goods. Obviously, the financial crisis and the rising price of oil are bound to have an impact, but 30 per cent seems like a staggering drop, doesn't it?

Looking at the situation more closely, it appears that maritime transport, like many other sectors of the global economy, has fallen victim to a 'bubble effect’, which explains why the fall has been so brutal: between 2000 and the current crisis, there has been a massive boom in container shipping, partly sustained by China's accession to the World Trade Organisation. The Western world had found a new supplier of cheap electronics, toys, clothes, appliances etc, and those goods remained very competitive despite the additional cost of transportation to market.

As a result, new ships were designed and built with speed and volume. But today, as I've learned by reading an article written by Financial Times Transport correspondent Robert Wright, the world's fastest container ships, known as B Class, are not moving and their future looks unclear.

As Wright explains: "Although the oldest is only four years old, conditions have changed so completely they may never see commercial service again without heavy modifications."

Five of the 300-metre B Class ships – among them the 'Boston’, which has never operated its intended USA/China route – are tied up in Loch Striven, Scotland.

Bearing in mind that each ship is thought to have cost approximately £33 million to build and all seven of them are now tied up with no release date, the news is anything but anecdotic.

Indeed, on a bigger scale, 10 per cent of the world's container ship fleets lie idle.

One might ask why the owner of the B Class ships does not simply consider operating them at low speed, in order to keep costs acceptable? Surely this would be preferable to taking those high-tech vessels, which are not five years old, off the maritime routes? Common sense would think so, but there is a little problem: those boats have been designed for high speed sailing, and simply are not efficient at all with the throttle rolled back!

This goes to show how quickly things tend to move in today’s world, and how easily huge investments can be compromised by a sudden change of wind – probably one of the many tangible effects of a global economy running wild, and not reacting rationally to sudden surges of activity. The faster things grew in size, the harder they fall today.