I used to work at a major container carrier and they actually had a pretty good handle on their operating costs (it's not hard when you only sell one thing), th

I used to work at a major container carrier and they actually had a pretty good handle on their operating costs (it's not hard when you only sell one thing), their problem was insane capital expenditures. When China joined the WTO in 2002 they bet big on the upward trend in demand continuing indefinitely, and when the economy crashed in 2008 they were left with a huge order book of new vessels they no longer needed. They still haven't recovered from that.