Slow Boats from China

The economic downturn has caused turmoil in the world of shipping. Last year the decline in trade led to huge over capacity and tumbling rates as the lines competed for their share of the pie. The decision was taken to "mothball" many of the larger loss making vessels in order to reduce capacity and drive prices back up. The result is that space on some routes is now extremely tight and price increases have come in across the board.

A “Slow Steam policy’ has also been introduced to reduce fuel costs and this is adding 3-4 days to published transit times. This policy is said to be on-going.

You can read more about it here