> One of the painful early lessons for the industry was the discovery that minimizing operational costs (particularly fuel and maintenance) trumps every other v

> One of the painful early lessons for the industry was the discovery that minimizing operational costs (particularly fuel and maintenance) trumps every other value. A pioneering containerized shipping company went bankrupt pursuing a high-speed shipping strategy that cost marginally more than low-speed competition. I’m not convinced that this is static — as far as I can see it should depend on the prevailing rate of interest. The more a company pays in interest on a loan, the faster it should want to realize its investment (which doesn’t happen by goods sitting in a container). I’m not sure what the equilibrium interest rate is, exactly, but at some level of interest it should become cheaper to ship the goods faster, since you will save more in interest payments than the extra you pay for shipping (due to your investment becoming operational sooner, allowing you to pay back the loan).