Stephenson Clarke, a shipping company established in 1730 and known affectionately as “Stevie Clarke” by many in the industry, the company just sold its last six ships in July, according to reports. For the past few years, the dry shipper has tried to sell what it could and cut costs to stay in business but it is no more.

“While previous economic downturns have been weathered, the current market is one of the worst experienced for many years with no upturn forecast for at least 12 to 18 months,”says a spokesman for liquidator Tait Walker, who was appointed on August 3.

Other dry bulk shippers have also been struggling throughout the economic slowdown, with Deiulemar Shipping, a major Italian dry shipping group, said they were seeking to wind up the company after prosecutors seized more than half its fleet.

The performance of dry shippers are often seen as indicators of the health of the overall economy and the sector has been getting pummeled quarter after quarter for years, with hopes of a turnaround but things continuing to twist in the wind, with the industry dying out. What dry shippers essentially do is ship important raw materials like coal, iron ore and grain, which have direct links to industrial production. Hence, if dry shippers are doing horribly, then industrial production is probably not doing all that hot and vice versa.

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