The global shipping industry has been getting its biggest pay day since 2008 as the combination of booming demand for goods and a global supply chain that is collapsing under the weight of Covid-19 drives freight prices ever higher. With the merchant fleet hauling about 80 percent of world trade, the surge reaches into every corner of the economy. The boom back in 2008 brought with it a huge wave of new vessel orders, but the rally was quickly undone by a demand collapse when a financial crisis triggered the deepest global recession in decades, Bloomberg reported. This boom’s causes are twofold – an economic reopening after Covid that has spurred surging demand for goods and raw materials. Alongside that, the virus continues to cause disruption in global supply chains, choking up ports and delaying vessels, all of which is limiting how many are available to haul goods across oceans. That has left the majority of the shipping sector with bumper earnings in recent months. The bonanza is centred around container shipping – where rates are spiralling ever higher to new records – but it is by no means limited to it. The shipping industry is posting its strongest daily earnings since 2008, according to Clarkson Research Services, part of the world’s biggest shipbroker. The only laggards are the oil and gas tanker markets, where more bearish forces are at play.