Trade spats could dampen shipping growth in 2019-Hapag Lloyd CEO

FRANKFURT (Reuters) - An escalation of tariff wars between China and the United States could dampen growth in international container shipping as operators pre-emptively brought forward business in the second half of last year, Germany's Hapag Lloyd said.

"Many customers tried to get their goods through to the U.S. ahead of time in second half 2018, creating additional growth," Rolf Habben Jansen, chief executive of the company that is the world's fifth biggest shipping liner, told reporters in Hamburg on Tuesday.

"That points to some business having been brought forward," he added.

(Reporting by Jan Schwartz, writing by Vera Eckert, editing by Kirsten Donovan)