[swatow]

When things move so slowly, there is no advantage to being autonomous. And it makes little difference economically who the owners are. Right now, ships will change their speeds based on changes in interest rates, since it is more fuel efficient to move slowly, but when interest rates go up, it is worthwhile to get the cargo to its destination quicker.

[mafribe]

That's really interesting. I know little / nothing about the economics of large scale maritime transport. Could you point me towards some reading material on this subject?

[runeks]

> Right now, ships will change their speeds based on changes in interest rates, since it is more fuel efficient to move slowly, but when interest rates go up, it is worthwhile to get the cargo to its destination quicker.

Perhaps this is the reason the Baltic Dry Index ("an assessment of the price of moving the major raw materials by sea" [1]) is at an all-time low?

http://data.cnbc.com/quotes/BALDRY/tab/2

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baltic_Dry_Index