Friday, June 4, 2010
Moody’s: U.S. port pressure could lower ratings in next year-and-a-half
Moody's Investors Service said Thursday that U.S. ports are operating in challenging conditions that could result in lower credit ratings over the next 12 to 18 months.
"While economic conditions are stabilizing, negative credit pressures will continue in the sector due to the slow, fragile, and uneven recovery in cargo movement, which is not expected to return to its historic highs until 2012," Moody's Analyst Baye Larsen said in a report.
Larsen expects competition for limited trade activity will accelerate, especially since customers remain financially constrained and are looking for rate deals.
The expansion of the Panama Canal, which is expected to be completed in 2015, is also putting pressure on U.S. ports to modernize their facilities, she said.
Larsen said that in the long term, U.S. ports will continue to see cargo growth, although below the historic trend of 6 to 8 percent annually.
-ABC News/AP
For the story source: www.abcnews.go.com
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