#Ports&Shipping –The latest IMDO Weekly Shipping Market Review includes the following stories as detailed below.

Irish Economy: Top tier ranking in EU competitiveness table - The Irish economy recorded a strong performance in the 2013 EU Competitiveness report, released this past week, scoring particularly well in all areas of industrial competitiveness. Notable strengths included figures showing Ireland to have the second most attractive business environment in the EU and the highest percentage of highly skilled employees in manufacturing, at almost 40%

Container Market: Increasing Orderbook - Box ship orders for the first eight months of 2013 have totalled 1.34Mteu, a 205% increase on the same period last year, according to Fairplay. Raymond Yap, CIMB Securities shipping analyst, stated this could lead to a full year total which exceeds the 1.8Mteu ordered in 2011, which was the highest since the 2008/09 financial crisis.

Tanker Market: Middle East crises further compounds overcapacity - Instability in the Middle East is adding further to the woes of the struggling Tanker segment, RS Platou's head of research told Fairplay.Ole-Rikard Hammer compared the effects of the current crises in Syria, Libya and Egypt to those of the Gulf War in the early 1990's, suggesting that tanker owners should beprepared for a difficult long term outlook.

For more on each of the above and other stories click the downloadable PDF IMDO Weekly Markets Review (Week 39). In addition to Afloat.ie's dedicated Ports & Shipping News section.