“2016 was a very difficult year for the shipping industry which makes me proud of my Seago Line colleagues’ fight and passion for our customers. Without that, we would not have grown and achieved the positive result,” elaborates Soren Castbak, CEO of Seago Line.

Market challenges

In early 2016, Seago Line predicted a downturn in the intra-European container industry that undeniably would affect Seago Line’s business. This prediction became reality as 2016 turned out to be a difficult year due to marginal market growth, oversupply coming from increased capacity from existing competitors and from larger shipping companies entering the intra-European market, intensifying competition on prices. The main driver of Seago Line’s reduced result is a decrease in freight rates which has now made the rates reach an unsustainable level. In the last part of 2016, we saw signs of an improving supply-demand situation due to increased scrapings which is encouraging, but the market situation is still very challenging.

Preparing for the future

Seago Line continues its digital transformation journey to make shipping easy for its customers which takes form of enhanced online and mobile solutions. This is supported by internal restructurings of several business areas and optimisation of processes that improve operational agility and efficiency. Towards the end of 2017, Seago Line plans to phase in the first of its new Ice Class vessels that are built from the newest technology in the industry. They will replace existing vessels and enhance service coverage to and from the Baltic Sea.