09/02/2012 (Fox Business) - Maersk Line, the world's largest container ship operator, anticipates a 50% decline in growth levels in Asian shipments of rice and palm oil to Africa this year, citing adequate volumes in West Africa after heavy restocking in 2011, a director told Dow Jones Newswires Thursday.

"We expect a decline in growth levels compared with the growth experienced in 2011. If we saw a growth of 20-25% in 2011 of containerized volumes, we expect only around half of this growth or so in 2012 in the same corridor," Sonny Dahl, director of Maersk Line's West Africa Services said.

Dahl said, at present, it's hard to evaluate the current stock levels held by West African companies.

Last year, growth in levels in Asian shipments bound for Africa peaked between May and August 2011. Buoyant demand for soft commodities from Africa was especially prominent in June as some African countries rushed to stockpile ahead of the Muslim holiday of Ramadan, a period when consumption tends to peak, Dahl said.

Last year, although a higher proportion of cargoes from Asia into Africa moved on containers as higher fuel costs made it more viable than using bulk conventional vessels, Dahl said he didn't expect the same trend to prevail this year.