Leading container-shipping lines have posted huge losses in 2009 as market contracted for the first time since containerization went global in the 1970s, while capacity grew as new ships, ordered during boom years, came into service.

Maersk, owner of the world’s largest container-shipping line, reported its first annual loss in at least six decades, of US $1,3bn, and said it would be limited to a “modest” profit this year because of inadequate price increases. Source