© Xabier Mikel Laburu/Bloomberg
Stephenson Clarke Shipping Ltd., started in 1730, has been placed into liquidation, according to a statement from accounting firm Tait Walker. The Newcastle-Upon-Tyne, England- based shipper, which employed nine people, sold off its final vessel in July, according to the statement
The Baltic Dry Index, a gauge of rates to transport dry- bulk commodities including grains and coal by sea, is down 55 percent this year and on course for a fourth annual slide in five years, data compiled by Bloomberg show. The current slump is "one of the worst experienced for many years," the shipping company said in the statement.
"News of the closing of Stephenson Clarke clearly shows how challenging the current economic climate is for shipping," the U.K. Chamber of Shipping said in an e-mailed statement. "Stephenson Clarke was an historic company and longstanding member until recently and we were very sorry to hear this news."
Contracting Economy
The U.K. shipping industry had 12.6 billion pounds ($19.7 billion) of revenue in 2010, according to the most recent data on the website of the chamber, which speaks for members from P&O Ferries Ltd. to container carrier CMA CGM SA. The country's economy will shrink 0.15 percent this year, the average of 40 economist estimates compiled by Bloomberg shows.
Stephenson Clarke owned dry-bulk carriers for short-sea voyages, its website shows. It was the world's oldest shipping company, according to industry newspaper Lloyd's List, which traces its founding to 1734.
"The size of the company and its small fleet mean that its failure is unlikely to have implications for wider shipping markets," said Marc Pauchet, a London-based analyst at ACM Shipping Group Plc, the U.K.'s third-largest shipbroker. Still, Stephenson Clarke's demise is symptomatic of a global surplus of vessels, he said.
"Economy forces ... shipping company into liquidation."
Realize: This promotes a victim mentality; a no-responsibility approach to life.
If that company really wanted to stay "afloat" it could have found ways to do it. There are technologies available out there that can enable a company, or any human group, to recover from suppressive attempts to crush it and survive and prosper. They don't work all the time because they require a certain amount of skill and courage. But it's better than doing nothing and blaming our failures on "the economy."
"The economy" is not a person. It has no volition of its own. It can't "force" anybody to do anything. People have volition. Suppressive people desire to kill, and social people desire to survive. And the suppressive people only think the way they do because they suffer from a severe delusion. The "ideal" world would not be a world without challenges and tragedies. It would be a world without human-caused challenges and tragedies.
The true suppressors of life are the ones we all built into the game we call "the physical universe." We have no need for psychopathy, and it can be handled if we confront it. And so can "the economy!"