Quite possibly the cushiest job in the world: manning the phones in an Asian shipyard. Since global trade spun off its axis last year, orders for new builds have practically vanished. So far this year, Korea’s Hyundai Heavy, the world’s largest shipbuilder, has not had a single order in January and February – down from 4,419 at the same stage last year. It is not alone. According to Clarksons, just seven shipbuilding contracts were signed worldwide in February: one for Europe, two for Korea, four for China.

This is not – yet – the utter disaster it appears. Yards are busy enough: order books across the industry stand at two-fifths of the total fleet, down from almost half last summer. If all ships due to be delivered from yards this year were to take to the water, the world’s dry bulk fleet would expand by almost a fifth, assuming no scrapping, according to Drewry Shipping Consultants.