Growth in the Asian ship container market to the United States will slow significantly in 2008, according to regional industry reports.
Arnold Wang, chairman of Taiwan's largest box carrier, Evergreen Marine Corp, said he expected to see growth on the trans-pacific Asian routes to fall in 2008 to a fifth of last year's figure, following recent predictions of a US recession.
Last week Goldman Sachs Inc said the United States was likely to tip into a recession, cutting its forecasts for regional growth.
Mr Wang said growth could drop from 10 per cent to 2 per cent but expected freight rates in 2008 to remain relatively positive despite the forecast.
Growth potential from European economies, driven by a strong euro - which hit a six-week high against the US dollar today - would support Asia-Europe container trade volumes, he said.
Banking analysts, who had pegged the growth in Asia-Europe routes at 15-17 per cent last year, now expect it to hold at similar rates for 2008.
In a recent shipping note to clients, Citigroup Global Markets, Equity Research said Europe, intra-Asia and Middle East container trade remained "relatively stable".
But it warned there was a risk that growth could slip to 8 per cent in 2008, in line with a slower US economy.