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MARCO WERMAN: Piracy is a big hazard for cargo ships. But the shipping industry's also under threat from a much larger problem. I'm talking about the economic crisis. As global demand for consumer goods declines, so does the business of moving those goods around in container ships. The BBC's Adam Mynott visited several European ports to find out how the industry is faring. He starts his report approaching a giant container ship near Europe's biggest port, Rotterdam.

ADAM MYNOTT: It's only when you get up close along side the Ellie Merse that you can appreciate the size of the vessel. This is one of the six largest container ships in the world. It's heading into Rotterdam harbor. I'm onboard the launch with a pilot who will help guide the vessel into port. In a moment we're going to climb a rope ladder dangling off the side of this vast ship. All right. We're up now on the bridge where Captain Christian Ruebeck is in charge.

RUEBECK: I must admit, I'm a bit proud to be captain of the biggest container ship in the world. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't.

MYNOTT: The Ellie Merse, 158,000 tons or the length of three football pitches, has between 4 and 5,000 containers onboard. That's about 60 percent capacity. Economies of scale means this ship is very cost effective and doesn't struggle to find cargoes. But Captain Ruebaker says that out there on the high seas, the recession is obvious. On his last passage from China, he noticed fewer ships at sea and many more inactive.

RUEBECK: Definitely, we know, just a lot of ships at anchor at there. Places I've never seen ships at anchor out there, and some of the ports are full of empty containers. So yes, we can see the economic crisis.

MYNOTT: Containers have only been around since the late 1950s. Chief executive of Merse's container business, Ivan Caulding, says virtually everything that is moved around the planet now travels in a metal box.

CAULDING: The name of the thing is that you can manufacture anywhere in the world and consume any other place in the world. It comes in a container – your clothes, your food, your electronics, your furniture and so on all arrive in containers.

MYNOTT: And that globalized consumption has come to a shuddering halt. Go to any high street or shopping mall like this, and the empty stores and boarded up shops bear a direct link to how many container ships are at sea. This has caused a collapse in prices. Sven Steindler, a senior executive with the Japanese shipping line NYK says this is disastrous.

SVEN STEINDLER: As long as the market remains as it is, our customers, they will clearly try to take advantage of it, and it's up to us to make sure that we run a business which actually is profitable. The current way the business is being run is not sustainable.

MYNOTT: Sven Steindler shows me around the NYK Artemis, which is loading in Southampton Dock. He says some smaller shipping lines simply will not survive.

STEINDLER: I believe that there will be some high-profile casualties out there. In some instances, I've said, “There is going to be a bloodbath out there.” And I maintain just that.

MYNOTT: Already, ships are being taken out of commission. This is Peres Harbor in Greece. Out in the bay are dozens of empty vessels. The difficulty for shipping is that it takes three or four years for a vessel that's been ordered to come online – so while demand is plummeting, capacity is continuing to climb. George Ratzos is President of the Helena Chamber of Shipping.
RATZOS: The ships that were considered necessary for trade to go on as it was going on in 2007 and 2008, and therefore the orders were placed at that time will be delivered in 2010 or 2011, et cetera. So while trade is going down, you will also have the double whammy of more ships showing up. And that, unfortunately, is a very bad cocktail.

MYNOTT: Nearly 500 container ships are inactive. Some vessels are even coming straight out of the shipyard into layup. Empty containers like some of the hundreds of thousands piled on wharfs in Rotterdam, Southampton, and in ports all over the Far East are empty. For the first time ever, container shipping is plunging into the red.

IVAN CAULDING: What we are seeing now is unprecedented.

MYNOTT: Ivan Caulding of Merse.

CAULDING: Container shipping had grown ten percent annually over the last 30 years. The worst year we ever had was in '82 with a growth of 5 percent. What we're looking at right now is a decline of maybe 10 percent in 2009.

MYNOTT: And that may be an optimistic assessment. Sven Steindler of NYK says that if shipping's near future could be foreseen, it would not look good.

STEINDLER: My crystal ball has stopped working a long time ago. My view is that we could well be in this situation for quite awhile.

MYNOTT: Adam Mynott, BBC News, Rotterdam.

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