The container shipping industry faces a deeper, longer downturn than expected, Ron Widdows, the chief executive of Singapore’s Neptune Orient Lines warned, as the line announced reduced third-quarter profits and said that it would lose money in the final three months of this year.

Mr Widdows said the outlook for the industry had grown harsher since September 30, the end of the third quarter, when world financial turmoil worsened after the collapse of Lehman Brothers. In the three months to September 30, net profit fell to $35m from $191m in the same quarter last year, in spite of an increase in revenue to $2.35bn from $2.03bn.