Anxiety Is High at NYC Shipping Conference

On the sidewalks outside the Pierre Hotel, the cigarette smoke rose and so did the anxiety.

The people, mostly men in dark suits, were taking smoke breaks from the conference, called Marine Money Week, the annual shipping-business confab in New York sponsored by a maritime trade journal of the same name. The accents were Greek, Norwegian, Danish, Texan, Oxbridge -- and more Greek. The anxiety had to do with a massive multi-billion-dollar, industry-wide shortfall between the number of ships on order from builders, and the money needed to pay for those orders.

During the boom times, that money would have come from banks. In these times -- reports of thawing credit markets notwithstanding -- the banks were being intractable. At the conference on Wednesday, five banking executives found themselves in the awkward position of sitting at a table on a dais in front of a ballroomful of ship owners, and telling them, essentially, that their hands were tied. ...